The Wonderful World of Skullgirls
by Spitfire1994
Summary: The Player arrives in the Canopy Kingdom in order to find the Skull Heart and make a wish of his own. Ignorant fool.
1. One Shot

**Oh, I'm back and with another random project I just decided to do for the heck of it. This time its Skullgirls! Which is slowly becoming one of my favorite fighting games because of the characters and the pace of its fighting, its great! If you're into fighting games but don't know what Skullgirls is I recommend picking it up, especially cause the price is sexy almost as sexy as the main cast...but I digress. Anyway this is a one-shot chapter, I kinda just threw it together out of the blue. A lot of random and dumb stuff will happen in this so hopefully some of it will be funny XD**

**Well here's my first attempt at Skullgirls. If anyone likes it how it is then I'll make more :D**

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'Legend tells of an ancient artifact that can grant a woman's wish…The Skull Heart, however if she is impure of heart her wish will be corrupted and she will turn into an immensely powerful, twisted being of destruction…The Skull Girl'

The view pans out from the words detailing the story of destruction and shows a young man closing the book he was reading the description from, placing the book inside of the bag he had by his feet on the floor of a large blimp like ship carrying a variety of people inside.

"...what a load, only granting the wish of a woman. I've never heard of a more sexist thing in my life." He huffed as he crossed one leg over the other and resting his cheek on the palm of his hand while his elbow sat upon the window seal to his left. His dull eyes drifted to the side to get a look of the view outside.

Nothing but a sea of clouds since we left the ground. I was honestly hoping I'd get to see the world below as we traveled since there's nothing else to do in this ship. Not even a movie. Well, anyway, I'm going to try and see if I can find this Skull Heart and make a wish for myself. What will I wish for? …I dunno. I should probably fix that.

"What's all this talk about wish granting, man?" A little girl from the seating row ahead of him questioned while looking down to him from the back of her chair.

He looked at her with a raised brow in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"You're going crazy back here and I'm trying to play Skullgals on my handheld! You know you were actually speaking aloud and not narrating, right?"

For a brief moment he gave a blank gaze at the young girl as if not wanting to reply to her statement or possibly because he honestly couldn't recall whether or not he was monologuing to himself, "Wow. Breaking the fourth wall this early? I can already tell this is gonna suck."

The young girl simply gave a cold stare to him before realizing he didn't look familiar, "Hey, you look kinda…different. I don't think I've ever seen you around before."

"That's because I'm new around here. My home is…very far away. I'll be living in the Canopy Kingdom for a little while. I'm searching for something. I'll get it and get out." He turned his attention back to the window, trying to dismiss the little girl with obvious signs of being uninterested.

The girl looked at him with an intrigued look. "Oooooh, new guy?" she asked before forming a cocky grin. "Well you're not home anymore! It's a whole new world out here."

"I know." He said unenthusiastically still looking out to the clouds.

"My sister is actually the crown princess of the Canopy Kingdom."

The young man's eyes slightly widened at her sudden statement. He turned back at the young girl with a puzzled look on his face, "Your sister is a princess? Wouldn't that make you a princess as well?"

The girl nodded with a proud smile. "What's your name?"

"…I can't give out my real name but you can simply refer to me as 'The Player'."

"The player?" she repeated to herself before placing a curious finger upon her bottom lip gesturing that she was in a pondering state of mind. "Whatever," She shrugged after thinking for a brief second, "I'm Umbrella. Now if you'll excuse me I've gotta use the little girl's room!"

She jumps out of her seat and runs to the back of the blimp. The sound of a door opening and shutting could be heard as she disappeared. The Player simply shook his head and turned back to the boring view of clouds.

How did I end up meeting a princess the day I decided to come out here? I hope she isn't a plot point…I just want to get this Skull thing and make my wish. I tried looking for this other artifact that would grant my wish but it turns out there's seven of them and they're scattered around the world. Not only that after gathering all seven I'd have to talk to some dragon about my wish, screw that. This was much simpler. I hope I'm narrating to myself correctly this time.

The thick clouds finally started to die down as the view of a large sprawling land could be seen in the distance. The Player looked on in awe upon seeing it just ahead. The intercom at the front of the ship was beginning to turn on. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We will be arriving in the Canopy Kingdom shortly. I repeat we will be arriving in the Canopy Kingdom shortly."

First thing I do when I get down there is looking for a diner to get me something to eat. I probably should've eaten before coming out on the flight…but I didn't think it would've taken 24+ hours. And the service sucked, I should get my money back…

He stood up from his seat and looked back to the doors at the back of the ship to see if Umbrella was out of the bathroom but she was nowhere to be found. He sat back in his seat shaking his head to himself as he checked his bag to make sure he had everything before the ship landed at port.

Ok, seriously, she still can't be pissing…if anything I could've at least got her to show me around. Maybe even let her pay for my food if we found a place to eat. Normally I'd get crap for letting a girl pay for it but she's a princess. She's rich! I ain't gotta feel bad about that.

He took out a small book titled 'Canopy for Idiots' and turned a few pages before stopping on the section containing the information he was looking for.

"Ruled by the royal Renoir family, the Canopy Kingdom is a sprawling land of vast variety, with sights of beauty contrasted by realms of despair. King Renoir's ruthless war campaigns lead to explosive technological and cultural growth, but only through grave ethical and moral sacrifices.

Seven years ago, the world was engulfed in conflict, in what became to be known as the Grand War. Queen Nancy Renoir found the Skull Heart and wished for peace, but found herself transformed into the most powerful Skullgirl to date as a result. In the end, the three nations had to stop their war to team up to defeat the former queen – in the end her wish was granted, as an uneasy peace formed following her demise."

Well that sucks. While this Skull Heart thing does sound dangerous it ain't say anything about turning any man into a Skullboy, and why is it that only the women get to make a wish? Has any male tried making a wish upon the thing? Why don't they just make their wish but at the end say "without turning me into the Skullgirl"? I guess as I'm walking I should watch for plot holes.

A couple of minutes later the flying ship finally landed in its port. All the passengers inside gathered their things and walked out of the 3 doors available for exiting. The Player threw the bag over his shoulder and exits through the front.

"Comin' out and feelin' about 10 pounds lighter!" Umbrella came out of the bathroom speaking in a victorious tone. She was surprised to see that the ship was nearly deserted but even more surprised to see that the Player has left. She growled with an annoyed look as "Jerk…" escaped her mouth.

Meanwhile the Player was already well on his way. The only thing he had was the bag over his back as he traversed the bustling streets, large airships, similar to the one he was riding on earlier, soaring overhead.

"Wow…this place is huge. I wonder where I should start to look for th-" Suddenly he was seemingly tackled by a mysterious figure in a black trench coat. The impact was enough to make both of them fall over. "Ack!" he grunted as he hit the ground. "Hey! What's the big idea?!" He asked while lifting himself up, he turned to one who bumped into him only to see that they were lying flat on the ground with a coat over their shoulders. "Why'd you run into me like that?!" He asked sternly as he removed the coat from over the pedestrian only to freeze up once he noticed there was no head attached to the body.

"There it is!" A feminine voice called out. The player's eyes slowly scrolled up to see a head moving toward him. The head was upside and had feline ears, using them to move about as if it was normal. "Thank you for catching my body. It would've been a real CATastrophe if it got away." The body on the ground started to move on its own and eventually sat up, rubbing the empty space on its shoulders as if scratching its head…which it was clearly missing. "I'm down here!" The head yelled out to the body which began to feel around before finally placing its hands upon the head. After gripping it the body managed to put the head on its shoulders, the head and body were a perfect fit and reconnected. "There!" the newly formed cat woman cheerfully stated with a satisfied grin.

The Player was still looking on in frozen disbelief, a dropped jaw and shrunken eyes.

The cat girl saw his interesting expression and finally decided to speak up, "Um-"

The player jumps back and pointed at the young woman. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" His screaming was nearly identical to that of a frightened girl.

The confused feline woman simply tilted her head slight confusion with a soft "Meow?" coming out of her mouth. Before she could say anything else The Player turns in the other direction and dashes through the crowd of citizens with no intention of looking back.

The more he ran the crazier things around him got. The sight of human-animal hybrids of this caliber was new to his eyes and enough to keep him running for the majority of the day, he continued running until the sun started to go down.

He laid his back up against a wall and slowly slid down until he was sitting on his rear. He looked up to the sky while breathing heavily. "…What the heck is up with this place? What were those things?" His eyes started to drift around, checking his surroundings. "…Uh, where am I?" His panic lead him to a small seaside like town, he inhaled before giving a long and exhausted exhale once he realized he was now more lost than he already was. "Great. What am I supposed to do now?"

Suddenly something caught his attention. He closed his eyes and slightly held out his nose to take in a small whiff of the air.

"…Food." He said to himself, nearly drooling. He stood and began to follow the scent. He walked across the many laid out wooden platforms which acted as a source for getting around the rest of the town that was submerged in water. As he carefully made his way the Player eventually found the source of smell he was attracted to and much to his joy it was a restaurant before his very eyes. "Hallelujah!" He exclaimed in delight, "Finally…a place where I can have a good meal! Hm, 'Yu-Wan'…sounds Chinese, a Chinese restaurant. Truly is my lucky day." He smiled as he pushed open the front door and closed it behind himself.

"Welcome sir!" A gentle voice called out to him as he walked in. He turned to where he heard the voice and noticed another hybrid creature, it was impossible for him to tell what exactly she was but she wasn't threatening in the slightest. "Table for one?" she asked him politely.

The player's eyes widened, his jaw dropped and he pointed. "Aaaaa- actually…you're kinda cute."

"Huh?" She tilted her head curiously to his claim.

The Player shook his head, dismissing his own compliment to the young woman. He played it off as if everything was fine. "I mean...yes. A table for one Miss-" He looked down to her name tag "Minette."

The waitress, Minette, smiled brightly at him and nods. "Right this way please." She lead him to a table near the window, placing down a menu and silverware for him. He sat down and pulled his seat up to the table. "Have a look through the menu and see what you'd like today. As you already know my name is Minette and I will be your waitress for today. If there's anything you need just call me and I'll be right over!"

"Thank you." The Player responded with a pleased expression due to Minette's excellent customer service. She bowed respectfully to him and walked off to help another customer, leaving the Player to have a look through the menu. "Such a nice, sweet girl…"

"Ya hear the news?" A voice spoke up from a table not too far from where the Player was sitting. "The Skullgirl's been going after all those families in Maplecrest…"

Hearing the name 'Skullgirl' quickly caught the Player's attention. He turned his head to the right and saw two goons discussing the matter at their own table. He was careful not to make himself too obvious with his eavesdropping.

"Looks like this new Skullgirl's got a bone to pick with the boss." The second goon spoke up. "Where has he gone, anyway? Think the rumors of him getting sick are true?"

The Player placed his fist on his mouth in a thinking position. "Generic mafia goons. Talk about a pretty consecutive day: first the youngest princess of the Kingdom and now goons who know about the Skullgirl. If they know about her then they gotta know about the Skull Heart too. It won't be a smart idea to just straight up ask them about it, unless I want to end up in the trunk of their car. I wonder if there are any normal people out there who-"

Just as he continued to think to himself a commotion breaks out over at the goon's table. "Is everything OK over here? Are these guys bugging you, Minette?"

The Player took another quick glance over to the noise and was shocked to see the cat woman from earlier. Just remembering the sight he saw earlier was enough to make him cringe in his seat.

"Go find yourself a sandbox, kitty – we're just havin' a friendly chat with the little minnow here." The first goon continued to harass the two ladies much to the Player's disgust. Seeing their uncouth behavior to the girls was almost enough to make him completely forget about the horrors he saw earlier.

"Leave now, or I'll throw you out myself." The feline woman spoke sternly.

The larger goon had his focus on the feline. "Can't you take a clue, you flea-bitten tart!?"

The Player was now fully annoyed at the insults and rude behavior the older men were giving the girls. He slammed his fist on the table and stood up. "If there's one thing I cannot stand its men taking advantage of ladies, let alone verbally abusing them and I'm not gonna stand for this!"

"Clearly you don't know who you're messing with." The goon continued on, not even acknowledging the Player, as he stood up with his hand on a hidden blade's hilt.

"Hey y-!" The Player was about to call out but was stopped immediately when he saw the thug take out a large bladed weapon and swung it across the feline's neck, cutting her head clean off, blood gushing from her decapitated neck. The Player's built up tension instantly faded away and he froze as her body hit the floor.

"Ha, did you see that? That stupid cat didn't stand a chance."

The Player did a 180 turn to the nearest window. With a serious case of 'Nope' on his face. He got within a diving stance and leaped out of the window, landing on the wooden platform outside. He quickly got up and ran as fast as he could away from the restaurant. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS PLACE?"

Later that night The Player eventually found himself wandering the neon streets of the bustling city where he first met the cat woman. The city was just as lively at night as it was during the day time. The city was rich with a night life scene. The Player managed to stumbled upon a small café and he wearily walked inside.

"Welcome sir." The owner behind the counter kindly greeted the young man. "Please, sit wherever you'd like."

The café was practically empty. There were only three costumers. Two adults, one male and one female, who were sitting together and a young lady who sat by herself, enjoying a milkshake. She was wearing a white and black school uniform, black thigh high socks and a hat of matching color to compliment her appearance.

The Player walked by the young lady and couldn't help but give a glance to her waist area. He seemingly reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of black shades which he then proceeded to put on. He then went on to bite his lower lip as the girl's lower area appeared as a reflection in his glasses, "Dat ass…" he quietly muttered to himself as he sat down on the other side of the counter. He took the shades off and put them back where he got them, he doesn't actually own shades so it's pretty suspicious where he would even get a pair. Most likely a result from hammerspace.

As the Player reads over the café menu a familiar man approached the young girl, who was still enjoying her milkshake, from behind. Upon noticing him the girl simply looks back to him with an uninterested gaze. "Well, well, well...what have we here? What say I buy you a real drink, sister?" The man offered.

The Player noticed the man and was shocked to see him so casually in public after being an accomplice of the gangster who decapitated the poor feline woman from earlier. The Player eyed him once more to make sure it was the same guy and it was. He quickly stood up and walked over to the two.

The man placed one hand on the young lady's cheek while the other had a firm grip on her thigh, the girl was obviously not too keen on him touching her but before she could act a very masculine voice spoke up, "...We've already got drinks, thanks."

The man was surprised to hear the voice coming from the girl and raised a brow at the tone he thought was hers. "Uh...that's quite the deep voice you got there, little lady. But it's cool." He continued to play it off with his perverted intentions but before he could do anything else The Player quickly intervenes and grabs the man by the wrist, yanking his hand off of the girls thigh.

"MURDERER!" The Player called out as he took the girl by her hand, making her get behind him.

"Um, kid, what are you talking about?" The perverted man questioned with a bewildered look on his face.

The Player scowled at him. "Don't play dumb! You killed that woman in that restaurant and now you're walking around like you didn't do anything! You cut her head clean off!"

The girl's eyes widened a bit at the Player's actions. "Who are you...?" She asked softly but wasn't loud enough to catch his attention.

The man pondered for a bit before remembering what happened in the Yu-Wan restaurant. "Oooooh! You mean that fish and cat girl."

"That's right!" The Player shouted.

"Look, kid...you got it all wrong. Actually me and my buddy got our asses kic-"

Before he could finish his sentence the Player balled up his fist and sent a quick punch across the man's jaw. The impact and force caused the man spin around in a daze. After getting punched he fell to the floor, knocked out.

"Call 911!" The Player called out to the owner and waitress in the café. "He must be trying to hurt this girl…" He quietly stated to himself before turning to her with a firm grip on her hand, "We have to get you out of here!" he stepped over the man's body, dragging the young girl along. The café owner looked down at the unconscious pervert and made haste but instead of calling the cops he checked the man's pockets for money.

After stripping him for everything he had the owner and waitress dragged him out to the café's back alleyway where they laid him out between trash bags on the side of a dumpster.

Meanwhile the Player successfully managed to get the girl away from the café by escaping into the neon city.

"Are you ok?" The Player asked the girl as he came to a stop at a nearby corner.

The girl looked at him with a blank glare at first but soon spoke up, "Yes...I'm fine."

"Good. That guy was bad news. Based on how he was treating you I can only imagine what he had in mind."

"...Do I know you?" She asked innocently.

"Huh? Oh, no. I don't believe we've ever met before. This is actually my first time ever coming here and I'm looking for something."

"Oh. I see..." The girl responded as her eyes peered to the side, her head slightly hanging down showing a hint of disappointment in his answer but she shook her head to dismiss her negative feelings in order to finish talking with her 'rescuer'. "Thank you for handling that creep earlier, but I could've handled him. Um, what's your name anyway?"

"I'm uh...you can call me 'The Player'."

Before the girl opened her mouth to respond the masculine voice from earlier spoke up, "Wow, your parents must've hated you. That's a dumb name." the girl gritted her teeth as she pulled down on her hat.

The Player was a bit confused to the sudden masculine voice. "Huh...?" He questioned.

"Uh, nothing!" The girl protested as she kept a firm grip on her hat.

The Player smiled at her, confusing her actions with shyness. "And you are?"

"All I know is that my name...is Filia." She answered with a rather interesting choice of words.

"All you know is your name? I don't understand."

"Yes, that's all I can remember. I don't have any memories outside of that."

The Player took a slight step back from hearing her. "You've forgotten everything except your name?"

Filia nodded.

"That sounds dangerous. If you have amnesia you shouldn't be wandering around out here, have you seen a doctor?"

"No. But I am looking for something that could help get my memory back. I don't really know for sure if it'll help but I'm willing to try anything. I've been searching for some time now and every lead I had proved to be false. Added to that there hasn't been anyone who knows me..." The look of disappointment slowly resurfaced for Filia.

The Player couldn't help but feel sorry for Filia, he lightly frowned as she told him the story. "Hey, don't worry. How about I help you find what it is you're looking for?"

"Huh?" She asked looking up at him once more.

"Maybe I can help you, maybe we can help each other. I'm looking for something too. If we come across someone who knows you they might refresh your memory. Who knows? Maybe your memories can point me in the right direction of what I'm looking for as well."

Filia fluttered her eyes in sudden glee as the Player managed to re-spark her hope. "You really think we can?"

"Of course. I'm sure someone knows you. We just have to look around.

Her eyes twinkled with an adorable smile complimenting her overly cute look. "Thank you! Uh, Player! And you, Samson...you've got to stop doing that. Whenever you have outbursts like that you draw attention to us!"

"Hmph, that creep was asking for it." the masculine voice spoke from seemingly out of nowhere once more. "No one lays a hand on my host...no one."

The Player scratched the back of his head, the masculine voice sounded familiar but there was no one else around to further add on to this Filia was the one who initiated the conversation with the voice. "Um, who exactly are you talking?"

Filia's hat started to move and her hair launched it into the air, two eyes formed at the top of her skull and a gaping mouth with sharp teeth formed after it. The back of her head bit down on the hat as it was coming back down, proceeding to chew on it while the Player watched in horror. After eating the hat her hair grew in length and soon grew a slim body of its own, even managing to stand up right. In height it stood taller than Filia, with its arms crossed, Filia was left to float helplessly in the wind with a blank smile upon her face as her hair confronts her new friend.

The Player stood in complete silence during the stare down.

"...Sup?" Her hair, Samson, spoke up to him with an upward nod of the head.

The only thing the Player did was drop his jaw and point, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"


	2. Chapter 1: Filia!

**Geez, its been forever since I got back here. I feel kinda stupid for being away for so long but life has a way of getting in the way of things but luckily I can finally get back to doing what I've been wanting to do since I went MIA around here. Now I can get back to my writing. I'm probably terrible at it by now unfortunately but I'm gonna do my best to provide a good experience anyway. **

**For anyone still reading this chapter takes place directly after the one shot so if you maybe forgotten what's going on it may be best to go back and re-read just so you're up to speed with everything and things can make a little more sense...not that anything here really makes sense but y'know how it was! Anyway I won't ramble so let me just thank anyone who happened to stop by and give this a read. Hope you like it!**

**P.S the lines written in italics means characters are thinking to themselves, so when you see it you know they're talking to themselves in their mind.**

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It was the start of a beautiful night in the marvelous neon lit city of New Meridian. The Player was now acquainted with his new friend, Filia, and ready to help her along her journey. Sharing the adventure with the human duo was Filia's parasitic hair companion, Samson. The group stood in an alleyway to discuss plans for the search ahead of them.

"So, do we have any leads at this current time?" The Player asked Filia as he laid up against a wall with his arms crossed.

By the time Filia had met the Player she was already out of leads and had to rely on a source from her parasite. She may not have known anything but Samson did. "Well?" Her eyes shifted to the right to show she was addressing Samson.

"It's definitely in New Meridian…I can feel it." Samson answered feeling certain of himself. "Between all the Skullgirls sightings and rumors I think if we just look for trouble we're bound to run into someone who can lead us to what we're looking for."

The Player gave an uncertain look at Samson's claim and had doubts about causing a commotion for answers, "Um, you sure about that chief? Wouldn't it make more sense to be all…ninja style for this? I mean wouldn't picking fights with random people draw more attention to us? Maybe police attention?"

"Hey! Nobody asked you!" Samson exclaimed as a cartoony red vein formed upon 'his' head.

"What?! I'm just saying your plan is stupid and it doesn't make any sense!" The Player retaliated, " 'Oh, I'm a hair demon thing and I'll just beat the crap out of everyone until some random pedestrian tells me what I want to know. I'm so smart, DUURRRRRR! '" The Player mocked Samson by mimicking his tone to explain his sentence.

Samson gritted his teeth and started flailing about, because he was attached of Filia's head it forced her to jerk back and forth as she grunted with each violent sway. "Kid, I will kick your ass!"

"I will drown you in shampoo!"

"Guys, stop it!" Filia raised her voice at the two in an attempt to get them to settle down.

"…HE STARTED IT!" Both the boys shouted at the same time.

Filia sighed at their bickering, the two were older than she was but based on their interaction it was clear Filia would be the mature one of the group. "Look…we're a team now so we have to work together if we're going to help each other reach our goals. How will we be able to make any progress if all we do is argue?" The guy's remained silent and pouty toward one another…Filia knew it was going to be a tough journey.

Samson huffed at them. "I still think my idea is better." He stated still adamant in his choice.

"…Fine." Filia said hesitantly. "We'll do it your way."

The Player held out his arms, a bit surprised Filia agreed to Samson's plan. "What?"

"Ha!" Samson teased as he stuck his tongue out.

"Samson knows a lot more about the trail we're on than I do so let's just follow his plan first. If it doesn't work out we can try something else, ok?"

The Player sighed and briefly raised his hands in a 'whatever' gesture. "Alright, you win…but how exactly do you plan on going about this?"

Wasting no time Samson had took a form of his own: growing a body, arms and legs. He stood upright as Filia dangled in the air. Samson was a lot taller than Filia herself so her feet would naturally be off of the ground whenever Samson took this bodily form. He ran out into the streets, starting a street brawl with the biggest and toughest looking guys around. The Player had to make haste and follow behind Samson's rampage trail. The parasite kept this up for about an hour. At this point he was just having fun beating the crap out of everyone.

After defeating about 30 guys Samson reverted back to his regular form on Filia's head. He let a bored sigh upon transforming back. "Guess nobody knows nothin', guess those professional interrogations weren't much help."

"…Professional? You were just beating everyone senseless!" The Player replied to Samson, "They were unconscious before I could even ask them any questions and you were so fast in picking fights I couldn't even ask them BEFORE they got wrecked."

"That was less productive than I thought, Samson…" Filia added.

Samson huffed with a cocky grin. "It's not my fault I'm a badass."

The Player simply rolled his eyes at Samson's statement. "You're an idiot."

"Eh! What was that?!" Samson asked in a rowdy tone.

The Player gave a mischievous smile, happy to see he made Samson lose his cool once again, "I-D-I-O-T: Idiot."

"Why you! I'll-"

Before the boys could start up another round of bickering a disturbing presence was steadily approaching the trio. An almost inhumane looking creature inched closer and closer, creeping up from behind the Player on all fours. "FIL-I-AAAAAAA!" It called out in a rather deep voice. Based on the sound of the voice and look of the body it was female.

The Player turned back to see where the sudden voice came from and upon seeing the creature that was crawling before him made him jump back, "AAAAAAAAAAAH!" he shrieked in fear, quickly retreating behind Filia. "What the hell is that thing?!" He asked in fear.

"I-I don't know…" Filia was just as unsure and surprised as he was. An uneasy feeling shivered down her spine.

Samson was a bit shocked to hear from the creature himself as it seemed to know Filia by name. "…Get ready. Filia! I don't think we can get away from that thing."

The Player shrieked in an even higher tone from hearing that escaping wasn't an option.

"Ready, Samson! But why does it know me!?"

The monster girl was unlike anything Filia and the Player have seen before. There was a brown mask concealing the poor girls face, two large red circles replacing her eyes and a large blade attached to her back bearing a slight resemblance to a Japanese shuriken. She had a rather muscular body tone. She was barefoot and wore tattered brown clothing.

"Must…Kill…" She muttered.

The Player was afraid but he didn't want Filia fighting the beast. His mindset of being the man of the group caused him to swallow his fear, thus getting him from behind Filia. He felt masculine and pumped, ready for anything. "Don't worry, Filia! I got this one!" Without thinking he charged ahead.

"Hey, wait!" Filia called out in a panic as she watched him run recklessly toward the girl.

He continued to charge toward the girl, his fist was now clenched. "This things out for blood! But as I said, don't worry, Filia!" The determination on his face was fierce, his very being was burning with adrenaline as he leaped for the monster. He was ready! Absolutely determined to protect his friend. This was The Player's moment, "There's no way she's gonna-!" but a reality check slapped the heroics right out of him as the girl simply backhanded him in the face, sending him flying off to the sides where he crashed into a bundle of crates.

"Oh no! Player!" Filia cried out in concern.

"BWHAHAHA!" Samson laughed uncontrollably.

Filia ran as fast as she could to her fallen friend. "Are you ok?!"

"Where's the leak, ma'am…?" The Player asked himself in a complete daze amongst the broken wood.

Before Filia could get any closer the girl dashed over to her and swung the giant metal blade on her back toward the unsuspecting Filia who managed to jump back mere seconds before being sliced in half, luckily the only damage was the midsection of her shirt being cut open. Filia slide back upon having her feet touch the ground.

"Darn it!" Filia muttered behind her teeth.

"Hehehe, kid, as hilarious as it was seeing him get his ass kicked we have to focus on ourselves right now. If he's not dead we'll check on him after this. Got it?"

Filia's eyes drifted back over to the Player who was unconscious. She knew Samson was right about their current predicament and put her focus on the battle that was about to unfold. "Right…" she got within her fighting stance with a serious glare toward her opponent. "Let's go, Samson!"

"Hell yeah!" An eager Samson replied as he sprouted large wing like appendages, using them to launch Filia forward to the girl at an incredible speed. Filia cocked her arm back and threw a punch but the monstrous youth's quick reflexes kicked in and she placed her large metal blade in front of her, using it as a form of defense, thus having Filia punch the blade. The force from the impact only caused the girl to slide back a few inches.

"That's nothing!" She stated from behind the giant metal weapon which began to wind up until it was spiraling around like a giant fan, powerful enough to blow Filia back.

Filia was sent flying from the strong winds, she slid across the ground until she hit the side of a building where she finally made her stop. "Gah!" She yelped upon impact, rubbing the back of her sore head. Filia opened her eyes to see where her opponent was only to discover the vicious attacker was already standing in front of her with her fist coming down toward her, it seemed as if time slowed down as her fist approached.

Luckily Filia managed to roll to the side before the girl could harm her. The aftermath of the attack was a hole being punched into the building's side. Upon dodging and Samson's quick thinking he surrounds Filia in a spikey ball, using the momentum to make a quick U-turn and roll back to the girl who was prying her fist from out of the wall. "Roll em up!" Samson shouted as the duo in the spikey hairball approached her.

The ball was too quick and she wasn't fast enough to react, the girl was tackled viciously by the massive hairball technique. She grunted as she was propelled back, hitting the ground as Filia hopped out from the ball formation.

"…Did we do it?" Filia asked as her opponent remained on the ground.

"Hurry, Filia! Let's get out of here before that thing wakes up!" Samson frantically replied as if he wanted Filia to avoid making any further conversation with the monster.

At first Filia didn't answer and remained stationary. "Samson…" She spoke up to him, "Who was I? Why does this poor girl know me?"

"I, er…don't know. It's clearly insane-I wouldn't worry about it…"

The girl on the ground began to move once more, Filia hadn't noticed and remained quiet.

"…Damn it. She's getting up!" Samson exclaimed in a worried tone. "We need to get out of here!"

The girl could barely stand as she held her abdomen in pain from the hairball attack. "F-Filia…it's me! Carol!"

"Carol?" Filia questioned with a lost look in her eye.

A closer glimpse of the girl's deranged face resulted in a few images of another girl flash through Filia's mind as if she was remembering a piece of her past. A slew of images rushed through Filia's head, who was now staring into space as the images filled her mind. Apparently…something snapped, Filia had achieved a piece of memory by remembering the girl 'Carol'.

"Carol?" She questioned once more but with a look of familiarity, "Is that really you?"

Before 'Carol' could even answer she turned the other way and quickly made an escape.

"Wait, Carol! Don't go!" Filia called out to the mysterious youth but it was no use, she escaped into the shadows. "…She's gone." Filia sighed in disappointment but she had an injured friend to worry about, she quickly made her way over to the Player and pulled him out from the ruined crates and laid him out on the ground. "Do you think he's ok?"

"Maybe he's dead." Samson stated in a casual manner.

"Samson!" Filia exclaimed, uninterested in hearing Samson's negativity…or humor, it was kinda hard to tell the two apart with Samson. She began to tap the side of the Player's face in an attempt to wake him up. His eyes began to twitch, showing that he was still alive. "Yes! He's waking up!" Filia happily cheered.

"Damn it, he's waking up!" Samson had said alongside Filia. The two clearly being complete opposites in the matter.

The Player grunts himself awake, his eyes began to slowly open to Filia's face.

"You're alive!" The smile on Filia's face widened seeing him awake.

"Filia…oh man. I had the strangest dream. I had a dream that this thing…just came outta nowhere and then-"

"You got your ass kicked?" Samson interrupted, "That wasn't a dream. You really got your ass handed to you."

The Player gave himself a face palm upon hearing the bad news but remembered the bigger issue, "Oh hey, what happened to that thing that hit me? Is it still around?" he wrapped his arms around Filia, frightened, as he looked around hoping she was gone.

Filia only giggled and gave a small pat to his head in reassurance. "No, she's gone. Don't worry."

After another look around the area, the Player could see their attacker was indeed gone. He released his hold from Filia and stood up with a straight look upon his face. "Pfft! Yeah, she better be gone because she wouldn't want to be around when I had gotten back up."

"Oh please…" Samson rolled his eyes at the Player's sudden tough guy act now that the danger was gone.

Filia couldn't help but laugh at the two boys. The two might've not liked each other but they had some pretty humorous exchanges when they decided to talk.

"So, what do we do now?" The Player asked after flexing his non muscular arm.

Filia's smile from a moment ago turned into a more serious look once she heard his question. "That girl, Carol, she knows who I am…"

"She does?" The Player asked sounding a bit surprised, "Did she help get your memory back?"

"When she told me her name I had a few faces pop into my head suddenly. I'm not sure if they were memories or not but those people I saw looked familiar. I never seen them but they weren't strangers from this feeling I got."

"Then…she may be the key to helping us getting all of your memories back."

"Maybe…"

Samson sighed at their conversation. "Just great…No talking you out of this now, huh?"

"Sorry Samson, but I need answers." Filia replied to her parasite who seemed against the idea, "We're going to follow her."

The Player crossed his arms while holding a carefree smile on his face.

"Hm? Is something funny, Player?" Filia asked curiously when seeing his expression.

"You know everything about this entire situation, don't you Samson?"

Samson's eyes shot open from the Player's sudden question. "W-What?! No!"

"Yes you do." He said with the same smile.

"Listen…kid! This is…I- you don't know what you're talking about! Just keep quiet and let the grownups speak…"

"I'm calling it."

"What?" Samson asked.

"I'm calling it, right now. That's all." The Player was now smirking confidently.

Filia became a bit suspicious as well, siding with the Player on the topic though she hadn't said anything. She noticed Samson has been acting a bit strange when it came down to Carol during their encounter. "Samson?"

"Don't listen to him, Filia. He's a crackhead."

The Player remained quiet, only nodding his head with what now seemed to be a near permanent smirk, he was still holding his beliefs in high regard. "Mhm." He casually replied.

"Grrgh! L-Let's just go!"

Samson took to his humanoid form and made a quick dash for the city, Filia shrieking as she comically dangled like a headband in the wind. Samson could sense the girl's presence so he followed the trail, the Player did his best to keep up with Samson's amazing speed. Following the bizarre trail Carol left behind the trio's search lasted them for nearly half an hour. The trail eventually lead them to an impressively large church which was known as the 'Grand Cathedral'. The Grand Cathedral resembled a traditional Catholic church, with white marble walls, large stained glass windows and ornate frescoes. Samson reverted back to his normal form on Filia's head as they reached the church's front door.

"This should be the place…I can feel her in there." Samson stated to his host sounding certain of himself.

Slowly coming up behind them was the Player, he was finally able to catch up to them. He slouched over with his hands on knees, panting. "Hey! Don't worry…I'm here…phew."

"Are you alright?" Filia asked.

"Yeah…I'm good. Just…need to catch my breath."

"Samson, you shouldn't have run so fast if you had the trail. We nearly lost him back there."

"He'll be aight." Samson quickly replied. Based on his tone there wasn't a care in the world for him.

The Player took a bottle of water from out of his bag and took a hefty drink, nearly finishing the bottle in one go but stopped halfway through. He pulled the bottle away from his mouth and gave a refreshing sigh, "Douche…" he muttered under his breath as he wiped the water from his lips. "Is this the place?"

"Yes. Samson, said he senses her presence in there."

He took a step back to get a good look of the building. "Damn. Is this a church or a mansion? Faith in money is doing alright in the Canopy Kingdom. But why would she be here? Maybe she had some sins to confess?" He slowly opened one of the church's large double doors and peaked inside. The church was practically empty if not for the three souls present, one of which was Carol.

From the opposite side of the Player Filia peaked into the church as well, "There she is…" she whispered softly.

Carol was on her knees before a rather tall woman. "Another failed experiment-time to shut you down, Painwheel!" the woman had spoken down to the injured and defenseless Carol…strangely calling her by the name 'Painwheel'.

"Painwheel?" The Player questioned before looking down to Filia who was focused on the transpiring events, "I thought you said her name was Carol."

Without thinking Filia suddenly charged through the front door and entered the church.

"Wha- Filia!" The Player called out to her in shock of her sudden actions.

Filia pointed a finger toward the tall blue haired woman, "Leave her alone!" she demanded with a fierce look in her eyes.

Carol turned to her with a hand on her head as if trying to control a headache. "…Filia? You remember!"

"Hmph, the amnesiac finally rears her pretty…" The woman stops as she notices the parasite attached to Filia's head and smirks to them, "-Heads."

The Player ran inside the church and stood behind Filia, "Don't worry Filia, I got your bac-" he stopped himself upon noticing the blue haired woman standing before them, he was struck in awe by her beauty. His mind almost completely changed from supporting Filia to getting a good flirt going. "Oh my damn! Hellooooooo, nurse!"

The woman raised an eyebrow at the young man, not expecting his presence. "And you are?"

"I'm whatever you want me to be because I wanna be yours. You fine as a mother f-!"

"P-Player!" Filia shouted to him in a somewhat irritated tone at his flirty ways toward the older woman rather than focusing on the business at hand.

"This guy's a horn dog…" Samson added.

"Idiot!" Painwheel scowled.

The Player flinched at the negative feedback he gotten from the people around him and sheepishly tried to play himself off, "I mean…who are you! Yeah…that's it…"

The woman smiled at the group from behind her mask, "Valentine." she answered, "I must say I wasn't expecting your arrival, 'Player'. Seems we have a new addition to the pot. What should we do, Double?"

"The Skull Heart can answer all of your questions, dear Filia." The Nun woman, Double, had spoken up from behind Valentine, "It will reveal to you everything." she continued, "Who you are, why you're here…what you're running from, it can do that and so much more. Anything you desire."

The Player slightly cocked his head to the side showing that he was a bit confused. "The Skull Heart? Wait, Filia, you're after the Skull Heart?"

She turned back to her friend and nodded. "Yes, it's key to what I need for getting my memories back. And…it's here?" She asked, turning back to Double and Valentine.

"Indeed." Double answered, "The Skullgirl herself awaits below."

"That sounds like something that needs to be, or should've been, kept secret." The Player's voice randomly spoke up in the background.

"…But only if you prove yourself worthy!" Double continued speaking as if the Player never said anything about the reveal of the Skullgirl.

The Player chuckled and placed his hand on Filia's shoulder with a confident grin on his face, "Bring it on! We can handle anything you throw at us!"

Double smiled at them and opened her mouth which expanded beyond human limitation. Sprouting out from her mouth was a fleshy like form that turned her completely inside out, having a more horrifying and distorted form beyond Painwheel. She was the definition of the word 'monster', making Filia shiver at the sight."

The Player was frozen in place with a smile at the sight. A brief stare to make sure he was seeing correctly was enough to make him around and walk toward the exit. "Oh well, I tried. So long Canopy Kingdom. Goodbye wishes, goodbye ambitions. It was nice to have a goal while it lasted!"

"H-hey, where are you going…?" Filia had asked out to him as she noticed he was walking toward the exit.

"I'm going home. I may have seen a lot of things during my time here but THAT is a bunch of Nope my friend. Nope, nope, nope!"

"But we're so close to getting my memories back and we can help you find what you're searching for!"

"Nope. Not worth it."

Before The Player could reach the exit the floor below him gave in causing him to plummet into the dark abyss below the church. His yelling echoing throughout the dark hole in the floor. Filia's eyes widened in horror to seeing him fall but before she could do anything a tentacle circled around her leg, grabbing her and it dragged her toward Double.

Meanwhile…below the church the Player had fallen into an underground catacomb where he was laid out upon a floor of human skulls. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "Ugh, what the hell was that? The floor just gave away…I should sue whoever made this church…" He soon looked around and realized what was around him. He quickly stood up and backed away until his back was against the wall which had shelves of skulls within them. Seeing this he backs away from the wall and stood in the center of the skull filled room.

Soon the skulls began to move and with their movement they began to sprout other bones as well. This caused the Player to panic as he watched the scattered bones transform into a new skeletal form.

"Oh my god, this is quickly turning into every horror movie I've ever watched. I'm alone, trapped in a dark place with no weapons and no possible way of escape…could this get any worse?" The newly formed skeletons were magically granted weapons, swords and guns alike, answering the Players question. "Why did I have to open my mouth?"

The skeletons were now on the move toward the cornered young man.

Ok, God? I know I've done some stupid things in the past…and I probably only agreed to help Filia get her memories back so I could get under her skirt…BUT if you help me survive this I will change my ways!

The skeletons drew closer and closer, readying their weapons to strike the defenseless male.

I'll go to church every Sunday, I'll confess all my sins…I'll even sponsor a poor child in Africa! - "JUST PLEASE! SEND ME A SIGN!" He shouted out as he curled into a desperate ball.

Suddenly all of the skeletons stopped moving just inches away from him. They turned around and dropped their weapons, slowly walking toward the darkest section of the room. Fading away into the darkness while quietly chanting "Lady Marie…"

The Player opened his eyes, realizing he was still alive and that the skeletons were now on the move and away from him. He stood up with a puzzled look on his face and shrugged, "Oh. Never mind, God, they went away."

"I've been expecting you." A voice spoke out from the shadows where the skeletons disappeared. The sound of approaching footsteps echoed in the empty room. The Player braced himself for the worst.

"Oh now what…?" He closed his eyes in fear of another unnatural horror revealing itself to him.

Stepping before him was a young girl dressed in maid attire. Her eyes were red with what appeared to be a skull designed pupils.

The Player opened his eyes once more to see the girl standing before him. "A loli?" He asked himself aloud.

"My name is Marie and you, I take it, are the new Player."

"What?"

"It has been many years since the last Player has ever set foot within the Canopy Kingdom. I must say it is an honor to be within the presence of a mighty deity such as yourself."

The Player was a bit confused by what Marie was going on about, looking at her as if she was crazy. "Look…um, if you've been following me or something I only chose that alias because I thought it was cool. My real name is-"

"You mustn't speak your real name here. It isn't safe."

"Oh my god…I don't want to be a key feature in any complicated scenario here! I just want to make a wish and be on my way."

"Wish?" Marie asked sounding a bit puzzled.

"Yes. The Skull Heart does the wish granting thing, right?"

"…Well, yes. But…you're a male. The Skull Heart-"

"Only grants the wish of a woman. So I've heard BUT I want to ask it why. I've been through hell today, I'm not leaving empty handed."

Marie looked at the Player in concern though she didn't want to seem rude she couldn't help but express herself as such when hearing his statement, "You…are a unique one. Are you even aware of your power?"

The Player shook his head. "Nope, I don't want to either."

"You have the ability to share the power of victory with those who dwell outside your own world. You are the key to solving our world's greatest mysteries." Marie began to explain anyway, seemingly ignoring what the Player had said earlier about not wanting to know about the aforementioned power he gained by journeying to the kingdom. "When you bestow the power of victory onto those you're close to you build upon it and with it you gain the ability to do anything."

The Player crossed his arms and began thinking to himself. "So I'm Victini?"

"AAAAAAH!" A pain filled scream echoed from above the dark room followed by loud crashing. The Player and Marie look up to the source of the noise but there was only darkness.

"Oh crap, I forgot Filia was still up there with that monster…"

"Go. Save your friend and uncover the mystery of the Skull Heart and this kingdom. The answer to what you seek lies within you, the almighty Player."

A long stairway materialized before the Player, it lead up to a doorway back to the Grand Cathedral. Marie disappeared once he gained access to the higher levels. "But I don't wanna be important!" He cried out helplessly.

Upstairs Filia was outmatched by the vicious monster, Double. She laid bruised on the church's floor, her clothes taking battle damage with cuts and tears almost everywhere. Double slowly 'walked' over to the defeated Filia who was breathing heavily on the floor. "I'll gladly accept your tithe...in blood." Her disturbing distorted voice had spoken out to the weak and frightened youth.

Filia's eyes were barely open as she only saw the bottom section of the monster approaching. "Sorry…Samson…"

"Damn it, kid…!"

It was over for the young fighter. She had met her match to the powerful and dangerous shape shifting entity. Double took the form of a giant hand with a gapping mouth on its palm. The mouth was nearly similar to that of a human's, teeth and all, it began to come down in an attempt eat Filia but before its jaws could lock down on her Filia is grabbed at the last second by the Player who rolled over to the side with her held closely. Upon retrieving the beaten fighter the Player stood up with Filia in his arms. He looked down to her, a bit discouraged from nearly leaving her earlier.

The weakened Filia opened her eyes once more and saw him, which caused a faint smile to form upon her bruised face. "You're still here. Thank you…" She muttered before passing out.

He was barely able to look at her, there was obvious signs he was shouldering a large amount of regret. His gaze turned to Double, the mere sight of her was enough to make him nauseous. Double's disfigured body began to revert back to her human self. A creepy smile formed upon her face as she opened her eyes to reveal nothing but the color red. "And so we meet again, Player."

"…So we do. Look, I'm not here to fight. I just want to get my friend home." Double remained quiet, holding her smile at the Player who now began to back away. Her lack of responding only sent more chills up his spine, making him feel incredibly uneasy, "Right…so, we're going-"

"…The Trinity has deemed you worthy. We shall meet again, young chosen one." Double stated as she placed her hands together and closed her eyes once more.

The Player just turned around and made a mad dash for the church's front doors, "STOP REMINDING ME THAT I'M GONNA BE IMPORTANT!" he cried out as a trail of dust followed behind him.

The Player made it back to the heart of New Meridian. He was a bit winded from running as fast as he could from the Grand Cathedral and with Filia no less, who was a bit on the weighted side for a young woman. His day was as bizarre as ever. He hadn't had a chance to rest since he arrived in the Canopy Kingdom and with this new information of being a 'chosen' one he could only imagine how hectic his life in the kingdom would become because of this. He traveled around until he found a hotel for him and Filia to rest for the night. He didn't want to take her to a hospital because of Samson and wouldn't know if it was normal for doctor's to see a creature like him.

He came across 'Poorman's Hotel' which was the only place in the city he could actually afford, everything else was too flashy and pricey but the hotel he was able to afford was ok, nothing fancy but enough to get by for the night. He carried Filia all the way up to their suite: 3rd floor, room 309. He took her to their bedroom and laid her down on the one bed they had.

"PHEW!" He let out a sigh of relief upon finally laying her down. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead and took off Filia's shoes, tossing them on the floor at the foot of the bed.

He left the room to find a few medical supplies, after looking about in the hall closet he was relieved to find a first aid kit. Before returning to the room he got a rag and wet it with warm water in the bathroom. He returned to the room and began to wipe off Filia's face with the rag. He opened the first-aid and took out a few bandages which he wrapped around a few of the more painful looking bruises Filia had on her body after applying medical cream. She was now all patched to the best of his abilities, after treating her wounds he was too tired to even move. He slouched down on the floor's carpet and slowly closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep beside the bed.

…

However, in an unknown location all the events that transpired were carefully being observed by a much higher power. In this undisclosed location a TV displayed the name "Skullgirls" as two women were sitting before it, one holding an arcade stick in her hand as if she was playing a video game. They were surrounded by countless books, posters, rubble, electronics and even prehistoric bones. All of these things were fit inside what seemed to resemble a bedroom albeit twisted and distorted. As if it was located in its own world.

"It's all…a bit like a game to me-" the woman holding the arcade stick spoke. "It's a device that fell from the 21st century, and I find that it helps me trace the branching threads of fate on the other side."

"A 'joystick'?" the other woman asked. "With a name like that, you'd think they'd be a bit more…exciting." She eased up behind the one holding the arcade stick in a rather seductive fashion. "Maybe you're doing it wrong – What if I…?"

"Calm down, sister – you'll have your fun in due time."

Suddenly the door to their 'room' opened as the shadowy silhouette of a woman appeared on the wall of the girl's room from the light of the other room. "Girls, dinner is ready!" she called out to them. "Stop playing and come eat dinner before it gets cold!"

"One second, mother – I just need to save my game!"

The view pans over to a look of the wall collection the two seemed to have. They were apparently well versed on a lot of things based on these findings: pictures, books, wall scrolls, VHS tapes and more was plastered everywhere.

"Before we go, I'll tell you this – each branch is history that might have been. However, there is one timeline where all threads converge…including our own. This current timeline, however, is an interesting one. I'm interested in seeing how this one will turn out. 'The Player' holds the mightiest power of all within our world. And with a new one returning he's sure to entertain us. Who knows…maybe we'll even get a chance to fight him."

"Now THAT sounds like fun – I can't wait to get out of here!"

To be continued…

* * *

**Originally I hadn't done the entire chapter and cut it in half to kinda save time and just publish it as fast as I could but I decided to continue on writing and just finish the Filia chapter so people can just get a overall feel for what's going on, where the story will be heading and seeing if it's something they'd like. No point in just cutting it halfway just so they can be left on the edge, it'd be like story DLC or something. I'm old fashion I prefer giving them the entire game with all the extra's in it without having to wait for the second half of the game. But...maybe I'm getting ahead of myself with this but you get what I mean XD**

**Again, I'd just like to thank everybody who read it all the way through and hopefully I managed to entertain you or even give you a cheap laugh or two. The story won't really be focused on drama or anything I want it to stay on a humorous route but I had things get a bit serious chapter 1 because the world and stuff had to explained and all that. **

**Well anyways, Fukua is next. But since she's a non-canon character and there's not much story to work on with her it'll most likely be really short so I guess it'll be an "encore special".**


	3. Encore Special: Fu-Fukua

"Insufferable bugs. None of these will do." A mysterious man shrouded in a black aura expressed frustration toward multiple failed experiments he was working on prior to his introduction, "...No, wait! I have it. I know what EVERYONE loves...clones...no...palette swaps!" Suddenly lighting flashed, blinding the area in a white flash for a brief moment. "Come, my Futakuchi-onna!"

Descending from the sky was the figure of a girl, a familiar one that was already pretty well established. She landed in front of the heavily shadowed man and stood before him with a blank stare. She was literally the physical doppelganger of Filia but with a darker skin tone and green hair.

"Hehe. Perfect! With this new form you will be my latest and ultimate creation! And with your power I will be able to accomplish anything I want! Let's not waste any time, my new creation, the future of my vision awaits…

The area grew cold and a heavy darkness began to shroud the field of view, ultimately resulting in everything fading to pure black. There was no telling what was to become of the Canopy Kingdom if this antagonistic individual got his way. Whatever his vision foretells it was bound to be bad.

One week later.

The man was resting comfortably in his urban home. He sat on the sofa reading the 'Daily Canopy' newspaper, sipping on a nice hot cup of coffee between page flips. Filia's doppelganger, who was maintaining the same blank and emotionless gaze, came downstairs.

"Dad. There's a party being held downtown and all my friends are going to be there. I'm gonna go out too."

The man put the paper down and turned to her. "Its past curfew for you, young lady. You won't be going anywhere I'm afraid. You have school in the morning."

"I wasn't asking your permission. I'm going out and I don't know when I'll be back." She made a brief stop by the coatrack, taking her jacket and putting it on.

The man stood up from the sofa with a furious look. "Fukua!" He shouted, revealing her name, "I said NO and that's final! I have had it with your rebellious attitude, you're ruining my dreams of being a father!"

"That's sad and everything but I don't care." She left the house, not caring at all how her 'father' felt afterward.

Seeing he had no control over his creation he fondly dubbed his 'daughter' the man breaks down and begins to weep uncontrollably. "Why am I so alone?" He shouted while curled up in ball formation.

While that guy settled down in his own despair Fukua was making her way to the party she mentioned before. She walked down the sidewalk of the Maplecrest suburb...or at least what looked like Maplecrest. There was a bloodshot sky with rushing dark clouds overhead, haunting monochrome buildings, and ghostly apparitions of the people and animals which roam the streets. As she reached the corner she was knocked over by someone who was clearly in a rush, this person was revealed to be the Player who jumped back from the suddenly collision.

"Oh! Crap. Sorry, I didn't mean to- ...Wait, Filia?" He took a closer glance at the girl to make sure he was seeing the right person and physically, yeah, it was Filia.

Fukua remained on the ground, rubbing her backside as she looked up to him. "Who is this Filia you speak of? I am Fukua."

"I guess you do look kinda different but aside from a few color differences you look just like her...you even have Samson on your head."

The parasite on her head moved his eyes up so that he could see The Player. "Samson? Get your eyes checked, kid. Name's Shamone."

"Shamone? Like Michael Jackson?"

Fukua and Samson stared at him with emotionless eyes. Their glares made the Player feel a bit uneasy, but after realizing she was still on the ground he extended his hand out to help her.

"Um, I'm sorry about that. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going."

Fukua ignored his hand and got up on her own, taking another gander at him. "I have never seen you before."

"Huh…?"

"What is your name?" She asked taking a step closer to him, getting into his face with the same dead eyes. The closing gap between them made the Player back away from her.

"People just call me Player but I need help. See...I kinda don't know where the hell I am. I just woke up here and this place is really twisted and...not the place I'm supposed to be in. It's like a whole other world."

"Oddly enough it feels as if we've met before. Even your name, 'Player', seems to ring a bell. As if we once slaughtered thousands together."

Her emotionless and dull attitude was beginning to make the Player a bit uncomfortable. "Um...so, it appears you don't really know much about my situation and I apologize for taking up your time, uh, Fukua?"

"Correct."

"Riiiiight. Well, uh, you're kinda creeping me out so I'm just gonna go." He extended his hand out once more, gesturing a friendly handshake hoping she wouldn't end up bringing harm to him if he shows positivity.

"You believe I am creepy and made me feel things I've never felt during the week that is my existence. You amuse me. I will make you mine." Before the Player could react he found himself handcuffed to Fukua. "Come, we have a party to attend."

The Player remained silent as he was dragged along by the doppelganger of Filia. Not too long after their meeting they arrive at the scene of the party which was being held in a dark and abandoned warehouse. It was full of ghost like beings with a few normal teenagers here and there. While the death metal music played Fukua had took her newly captive lover to the farthest end of the building where two teenage girls, physically around the same age as Fukua, were sitting around in a circle passing around a can of paint and a sock.

"I have arrived." Fukua plainly stated to the group.

One of the girls flipped the hair from over her eye when seeing Fukua, "Hey…" she greeted in a depressing mood. She was dressed in all black, with fishnet gloves.

"Fukua! I'm glad you made it! Oh! And you brought another sacrifice!" A more cheerful girl spoke up dressed in a jester costume.

"Sacrifice…?" The Player began to worry about his situation which seemed to get worse and worse by the minute.

"At ease my feeble kitten-mitten." Fukua turned back to her friends and pushed the Player forward, "This is my mate. We met just a few moments ago, we are made for one another. He called me creepy, a wise compliment." she was completely unenthusiastic when explaining this, almost as if she didn't care.

The cheerful girl clapped in joy, "How romantic! My name is Bella!" she shook the can of paint in one hand and with it sprayed the sock she had in the other. She then held the sock up to her nose and gave a mighty whiff of the sock which gave her a sudden boost of energy. "WHOO-HOO!"

"Sup, I'm Pain…" The girl dressed in all black attire introduced herself while flipping her hair to the side once more.

Fukua sat down, forcing the Player to sit down with her. She took the sock from the hyperactive but clearly high Bella and passed it to the Player. "Want to get f**ked up?" She offered.

"No...no thanks."

Shamone extended his hand out and took the sock from Fukua, "Hmp. Suit yourself." the sound of him sniffing heavily was enough to make the Player cringe uncomfortably. "Maaan...this is the good $#!&amp;" Shamone began coughing.

"Now. Tell me more of your situation." Fukua gave another small glance at the Player showing that she was pointing her question to him.

"Well...long story short my friend, Filia, lost her memories. When I met her she was a bit lost and didn't know where to begin. I didn't want her out wandering the streets with no memories so I agreed to help her find some people who may know her, unfortunately when we did managed to find someone it was this monster girl. She knew Filia by name and introduced herself as Carol. Filia told me she managed to remember small things including Carol. Before we could even get anything else out of Carol she ran and we had to chase her, she lead us to this church and once we got there we ran into these two older women. I fell through a hole in the floor, I meet this other girl who said I was some kind of key, Filia got in trouble, I rescued her and took her to safety. I laid down and all I remember is falling asleep."

"Wow! That's some story!" Bella shouted as she began to get a whiff of gasoline in a cup.

"Pain, you actually look just like the psycho Filia and I ran into...you just have a different color scheme going on."

Pain slowly blinked with her half-lidded eyes. "Life is like a turtle...slow and a waste of time."

"It's like I'm in a parallel universe or something and everyone here is replacing the one's on the other side. What the hell is going on here and what happened to Filia?"

"You seem awful fond of this 'Filia' girl." Fukua made note as she looked at the Player, "You even rescued her from the sweet release of death. Is she special to you?"

"She's my friend right now but the story might develop her into my love interest or something. Kinda hoping that doesn't happen."

Fukua continued to look at him with her emotionless stare. "I will hunt her down. If anything were to ever arise I will hunt her down and murder her. I will hang her decapitated head over my fireplace as a trophy, then cleanse you with my blood and purify your mind with the horrors of what I will do to you if anything develops between you and that girl." She placed her hand upon his head and pat him, still no emotion…"You understand, my kitten-mitten?"

The Player could only look back at her in horror, disturbed she maintaining her emotionless facial expression as if what she was saying was normal. It was clear he was already afraid of Fukua and desperately wanted things to go back to normal. "….Shamone, pass me that paint." He asked upon giving in to fear.

A few hours later that night!

Fukua came back home, kicking the front door open while carrying the Player over her shoulder. The sound of the door getting kicked in made the shadowy man jump up from the couch.

"Father, I am home."

"Fukua! It is way past your bedtime, where have you been?"

"I told you I was out at a party. Ya nark."

"Yeah? Well I- Wait, is that a...BOY?"

"Indeed." she blinked dully at him.

"Missy...you are in so much tro-!"

She began to head upstairs, still carrying the Player over her shoulder as if he was nothing. "Go sit on a popsicle and cool off, father."

The man remained quiet, emotionally dead inside from his daughter's verbal abuse. The sound of her door closing made him come back to his senses. "...A-And don't come out of your room until you've thought about what you've done!" She was already heading for her room thus making his demands void of meaning.

Fukua laid the Player down in her bed and unlocked the handcuffs. She undressed herself down to her underwear before proceeding to sit on top of him in a saddling position. She tapped his face repeatedly in an attempt to wake him up.

"….Mmmm, w-what? What happened? ...Fukua?"

"You passed out from sniffing too much paint."

He looked around to discover a neat, tidy and pink room in a bit of confusion. "W-Where are we?"

"Do not worry. We are home."

"...Why are you in your underwear?"

"You will be giving me your love child."

Wide eyed the Player blinked frantically as she began to lower her face down to his. Outside the door the man in shadow was coming upstairs after turning everything off downstairs. As he walked pass Fukua's door he could hear 'thumping' coming from Fukua's room. He approached the door and knocked twice, "Fukua, is everything ok in there?"

"HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP!" The Player yelled out desperately from the other side of the door.

Too afraid to confront his daughter in the matter, whatever it may have been, the man continued to strut pass the door as if he heard nothing. "Well, goodnight dear. I'll see you in the morning."

With one final shot of the house from the outside the light to the master bedroom was on for a brief moment before turning out, signifying the owner was on his way to bed for a good's night sleep...though god only knows what was going on in the other room.

The next morning Fukua, the man and The Player were all gathered together at the kitchen table with breakfast being served. The Player was a mess, he had a messy bed head and bags under his red colored eyes and his cheeks were moist , anyone could guess that he's been up all night.

"Eat my feeble kitten-mitten, you will need nourishment for the day I have planned."

"I-I just...wanna go ho-home…I just..." He was barely forming complete sentences as he tried to stop himself from weeping but to no avail.

"Cheer up. In a few months we'll have a family of our own."

The father looked over at Fukua, "A family?"

"Yes, father. I made a man of him and soon he will father my child. We will rule this world together in an eternal depressing bliss."

"That's...that's absurd! You can't get pregnant!"

"We have completed the mating process. I'm sure I can."

The Player slowly turned a frightened gaze over to the man, sniffling uncontrollably. "You...you just stood there and let it happen...you could've stopped this but...but you didn't...you practically just watched it…"

"No! She can't get pregnant because of that. She can't get pregnant because none of this is real!"

There was temporary silence.

"What?" The Player questioned with his head tilted slightly to the side.

"None of this is even happening. " He continued to explain, "Fukua is the clone of a girl from the Canopy Kingdom and I brought her to life here, in the dream world, to see what it would be like if I was a father, and honestly it sucks. I make clones of people in the real world and make copies of them in the dream world to make a bunch of 'what if scenario's' for myself because I'm lonely in my real life. In fact you're not even here right now, boy. You're just a dream version of yourself back in the real world."

The Player just sat there, unable to grasp the concept of what the # $% was going on…Fukua and the man simply turned their heads to the Player and just looked at him. His eyes were first on Fukua and then drifted back over to the dark man. He was honestly lost and had no idea what to even think. Everything that happened to him just seemed like a mere afterthought at this point.

"…Wait, what are you talking abo-"

Suddenly he rises up from the floor in a cold sweat. It was here that he awakens to Samson placing his hand in a bowel of water while Filia remained sleep on his humanoid back. The two stood there in silence just looking at each other.

"…."

"…Go back to sleep, kid."

THE END!

….

Fukua and the man were seen looking at the chair the Player was in before he popped out of existence in the dream world. The man sighed and crossed his arms. "Well, so much for this 'what if' story. I really need to get some friends…"

"So. I'm just a clone? Mere shadow?" Fukua looked down to her palms, still retaining her emotionless stare.

"That's right. Just the physical clone of someone in the real world. But hey, at least you had a life of your own in this world. You're nothing like your real world counterpart. You may look the same but your personalities are completely different."

"Even Shamone?"

"Yep. The clone of a girl with a parasite."

"I see. What's this girl's name?" She asked now looking up at him.

"Filia, or something like that. Some girl of minor importance I'm sure." He grabbed his plate and made his way for the kitchen. "After you're done eating you can just leave the house if you want now that you know the truth. I'm not really your father and you're not a real girl so it's whatever at this point. But it was fun while it lasted."

Fukua remained quiet.

"You seem awful fond of this 'Filia' girl. You even rescued her from the sweet release of death. Is she special to you?"

The sudden flash of the other night replayed in Fukua's head as her hand twitched upon her lap.

"She's my friend right now"

More images of the Player and herself flashed before her eyes as her hands twitched with each fragment of memory.

"Might develop her into my love interest or something."

Her mouth began to change from its near permeant emotionless state to what appeared to have been a smile...

"I will hunt her down. If anything were to ever arise I will hunt her down and murder her. I will hang her decapitated head over my fireplace as a trophy."

Her newly formed smile transitioned into a small grin as her teeth began to make themselves apparent.

"You understand?"

With the final words from her memories being spoken to herself Fukua finds herself looking into a mirror in an unknown location made up of pure light. The reflection before her displayed the image of Filia, her original self in the real world. Coming face to face with herself the glass cracks and shatters on its own, completely falling apart and hitting the black limbo that was now her psyche.

"Yes." She spoke to herself, seemingly back at home and in the chair with her breakfast plate before her. "It's all clear to me now...and my path is now set. 'Player', yes...mine. My life...my identity. My mission." She stood up from the table with her back at view, "I'm Filia. Fukua...is Filia...I am, I will be...Filia."

She turned her head revealing a sadistic, dark and menacing look on her face. She now set herself a new life goal. To become the one true Filia and erase her identity as a clone. The soft sounds of a faint chuckle echoes as darkness suddenly falls.

The End...?

* * *

**This chapter is a bit shorter than the others but it's only because Fukua and choosing what to actually do with her. There was dark comedy in this chapter but I don't really think it's out of place considering how dark and evil the actual story of Skullgirls is an Fukua is just as dark considering what she did in her story in Skullgirls, creepy stuff...It kinda took me a bit but I managed to come up with something even if it was random and didn't make sense, but that was kinda the point so that's why I gave this chapter the title "Encore Special" rather than chapter 2 lol. Hopefully this was randomly enjoyable, Filia should be meeting Fukua herself soon(Play Fukua's story and see what I mean if you dare). Next up is Cerebella!**


	4. Chapter Update

**Ok, so I'm still alive! I know I've been gone for a while and Skullgirls hasn't been seeing the love I should be showing it but because of how out of whack things are for me it's just a mess for me but I haven't forgotten this or anything. I think I already have an idea for how I want things to go and how I want it to end, the next two character's I plan on doing after Filia and Fukua are Cerebella(I mentioned this after Fukua) and Parasoul. After those two I'm not sure who I would want to get into next, maybe Peacock because I think her and the Player would have a lot of potential to get into some funny altercations. I'm kinda having trouble deciding whether or not I should give Valentine and Double chapters since they're kind of the villains however I want to give Eliza her own chapter as well, which kinda goes against what I was saying about Valentine and Double because...Eliza seems to be 100 times more evil than both of them and Valentine is more of a anti-hero than an actual villain, as for Double I don't know what the heck she is. She scares me.**

**I'll figure something out though. Rather than give them their own chapters I might have the threads of fate connect and have a lead up to the finale, though that would probably result in a shorter story and kinda unfair to those who are fans of Valentine, Eliza and Double. Decisions, decisions...**

**I'm also kinda behind on my other story, Dragon's Crown but as I've mentioned in that chapter update post I've been having a lot of laptop problems that I need fixing but since I'm broke I can't get it fixed. I do have my days where it allows me to do as I please and I get all that I need done. I'm multitasking between a lot of things, I'm trying to get both the Dragon's Crown chapter out and get this Cerebella chapter out as well but I also keep getting so many other idea's of other things I want to write, I want to write for Sonic, Pokémon and Kingdom Hearts. These idea's just keep popping into my head and then I get excited and then I want to write about it but then I remember I have two other stories I need to finish and...well, as I said, everything is a mess. I'm determined to see it through though. I have a preview chapter for the Cerebella story so I'll give that just so you can see that I am working on it also just to give you a taste about what's up. This happens right after Fukua's chapter.  
**

* * *

After an eventful night Filia and the Player managed to get themselves a good night's sleep in the Poorman's Hotel. The next morning Filia and Samson were the first to wake up. They sat by the Player's side carefully observing him as he tossed and turned in his sleep, they were under the impression he was having some kind of nightmare.

"Nnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaa-….." He was lightly grunting for an excessively long time while Filia looked down to him.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Samson asked.

"He must be having a really bad dream." Filia answered looking a bit worried, "Should we wake him?"

"I'll do it." Samson took to his bodily form and turned around so that he was facing the Player. He raised his hand and gave a swift slap across his face. "Wake up!"

"S-Samson! Did you hit him?!" Filia was facing the opposite direction so she couldn't tell what was going on but judging from the sound it was clear that Samson had hit him.

"No. Don't be silly, kid." He brought his hand back around and proceeded to slap and backslap the Player repeatedly. "Wakey! Wakey!"

Eventually the slaps started to work as the Player began to awaken. "Uuuuggghhh…." He began to groan.

"Is he ok?" Filia asked in concern.

"Yeah. He's waking up, oh well. It was fun while it lasted." Samson gave a small sigh of disappointment.

The Player opened his eyes to Samson, "What the…? O-Ow...why does my face hurt?" he placed a hand on his sore cheek and began to rub it.

Samson shrugged with a smirk, "I have...no earthly idea."

Before the Player could question Samson's expression Samson had reverted back to his regular form on the back of Filia's head. Filia faced the Player once having control over herself again.

"You were doing a lot of moving around in your sleep. Like you were having a nightmare, you were even sweating. Are you feeling ok now?" She placed her hand upon his forehead to see if he had a fever.

"Stop babying him, Filia. He probably dumped us here and went out partying, came back hungover and passed out." Samson added.

"You really think I'd do something like that? Gee, thanks, Samson."

"Don't mind him." Filia stated reassuringly, "I'm just glad we're all ok. Last night was pretty rough and...Carol."

"Oh yeah." The Player snapped his finger, "Your friend, I forgot that we lost her last night. I'm sorry."

Filia shook her head at his apology and smiled sheepishly. "D-Don't apologize! Look on the bright side, we're safe and we might even find her again...someday. You saved Samson and me, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah and I got us this hotel for the night. I felt bad for leaving you guys when I did back at the church."

"Yeah. That was a pretty bitchy move." Samson added insult to injury only to earn himself a bonk on the head from Filia, though she ultimately ended up just hitting herself but it was nothing.

"You're a really good, friend. Thanks for saving us. Samson's grateful too."

Samson huffed at Filia's claim.

"Right, Samson? The least you can do is give him a thank you." Filia turned her head so that the two boys were face to face.

"…" Samson remained quiet but soon the Player greeted him with puppy dog eyes and a fairly innocent look, this made Samson shiver and turn his glare to the side but the look from the Player was now stuck in his mind and he knew he couldn't be a bad sport to such a face. "Ugh…Thanks for not being a total pansy."

The Player nearly choked and shook his head, pretty much expecting Samson to reply the way he did. "That's as good as its going to get, isn't it? You're welcome."

"Hmp…"

"Yay!" Filia cheerfully threw her hands into the air as she saw the two somewhat get along but she quickly recoiled as her body was still in a lot of pain from last night. "Ow, ow, ow...guess my body hasn't fully recovered yet."

The Player reacted by holding his hands out to her as she flinched from the pain but stopped once he saw that she was ok, "Yeah, don't try to move too much."

Filia giggled lightly, a bit embarrassed at her own fault, "Guess I need to be more careful when choosing my battles."

"Don't worry, kid. We'll get stronger and when we do we'll show them what for. Once we get that out of the way we'll get the Skull Heart and you can get your wish."

"Right." She nods in response.

The Player was bit quieter than usual. He got up from the floor and looked down to Filia. "Hey, I'm gonna go out for a walk, ok?"

"Hm? A walk?"

"Yeah. I just wanna go out and get some air."

"Let me come with you." She tried to stand up but she flinched once again, falling to one knee as the bruises on her legs caught her sudden movement. "A-Aah…my legs."

"No, no, you stay here. You're injured and I want you to rest." He held his hand out to her. Once she took his hand he helped her off of the floor and gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. "I'll be back soon, ok?"

She gazed at the Player, obviously worried that something may happen to him if Samson and herself weren't around however Filia didn't want to seem pessimistic, she couldn't find it in herself to lie with a smile, "Just...be careful." was all she could say with a look of concern.

"I will." He smiled at her. With their final exchange in words he made his way for the door and left the room. Filia sat on the bed, looking down to the floor, still feeling a bit worried.

Later that same morning the Player was once again walking about the streets of the glamorous New Meridian. Unlike all the other times before there was no panic, just himself and a crowd of people going about their daily routine.

"...Filia's after the Skull Heart too. Goddamn it, this just makes my mission more difficult. I want my wish! But I don't want to be selfish about it...she lost her memories so I should just let her have it. Actually...no! I came here for one thing and one thing only so why should I even change my mind now? I'll get my wish and get the hell out of this place! It's so simple!" The Player hadn't realized he was talking to himself aloud in public. As he walked down the street people were keeping safe distances from him as if he was crazy. "But...she is my friend and I care about her...even Samson is growing on me." he stated to himself with more confidence than he did in his previous claim.

Out of the blue a black car pulls up to the sidewalk and drives alongside The Player. The passenger seat window rolled down and a mildly overweight man dressed in a sharp looking suit revealed himself to the Player. "Hey, hey, you!"

The Player turned and saw the man who was trying to get his attention.

"How you doin' kid? Aren't you the new guy on the block? The talk of the town. The one they call 'The Player'?"

"Um. Yes?"

"Great. I'm glad we found you because we have a little business proposition for you. Get in the car."

The man was obviously bad news and the Player knew this but the look in his eyes was a bit intimidating. "Mom always told me not to talk to strangers. I don't even know who you are."

"That's all good, son. You'll get to know me. Just get in the car. Heh, don't worry about mommy. We got candy and puppies back here too." He jokingly made fun at the Player while beginning to laugh much to the Player's discomfort.

"...I need an adult."

The goon pulled out a revolver and aimed it at the now frightened younger male, "I am an adult." he replied with a sinister smile.

* * *

**There's a reference in there, I'm hoping people get it but who am I kidding? There are reference's everywhere with me lol. So yeah that's the first half of what I got, I'm working on the rest now. Also just prior to writing this I went back and re-worked on Chapter 0(The one-shot) and Filia's chapter, I made a few changes here and there, improved some sentences, did a few grammar corrections and so on. So if anybody ever re-reads them and you see changes then that's why. I'm thinking of fixing up Fukua's chapter as well, maybe deleting it or something since it seemed kinda bizarre XD**

**I'll have to give it some thought. Well that's about it for me, I'm gonna go study more Skullgirls lore, looking at some Skullgirls art and writing on Cerebella's chapter, hopefully it'll be out and about soon. Thank you to those who read, follow, favorite, comment and all that good jazz, it's always much appreciated people :D**


	5. Chapter 2: Cerebella!

After an eventful night Filia and the Player managed to get themselves a good night's sleep in the Poorman's Hotel. The next morning Filia and Samson were the first to wake up. They sat by the Player's side carefully observing him as he tossed and turned in his sleep, they were under the impression he was having some kind of nightmare.

"Nnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaa-….." He was lightly grunting for an excessively long time while Filia looked down to him.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Samson asked.

"He must be having a really bad dream." Filia answered looking a bit worried, "Should we wake him?"

"I'll do it." Samson took to his bodily form and turned around so that he was facing the Player. He raised his hand and gave a swift slap across his face. "Wake up!"

"S-Samson! Did you hit him?!" Filia was facing the opposite direction so she couldn't tell what was going on but judging from the sound it was clear that Samson had hit him.

"No. Don't be silly, kid." He brought his hand back around and proceeded to slap and backslap the Player repeatedly. "Wakey! Wakey!"

Eventually the slaps started to work as the Player began to awaken. "Uuuuggghhh…." He began to groan.

"Is he ok?" Filia asked in concern.

"Yeah. He's waking up, oh well. It was fun while it lasted." Samson gave a small sigh of disappointment.

The Player opened his eyes to Samson, "What? O-Ow...why does my face hurt?" he placed a hand on his sore cheek and began to rub it.

Samson shrugged with a smirk, "I have no earthly idea."

Before the Player could question Samson's expression the troublesome parasite had reverted back to his regular form on the back of Filia's head. After regaining complete control over herself Filia faced the Player once again.

"You were doing a lot of moving around in your sleep. Like you were having a nightmare, you were even sweating. Are you feeling ok now?" She placed her hand upon his forehead to see if he had a fever.

"Stop babying him, Filia. He probably dumped us here and went out partying, came back hungover and passed out." Samson added.

"You really think I'd do something like that? Gee, thanks, Samson."

"Don't mind him." Filia stated reassuringly, "I'm just glad we're all ok. Last night was pretty rough and...Carol."

"Oh yeah." The Player snapped his finger, "Your friend, I forgot that we lost her last night. I'm sorry."

Filia shook her head at his apology and smiled sheepishly. "D-Don't apologize! Look on the bright side, we're safe and we might even find her again...someday. You saved Samson and me, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah and I got us this hotel for the night. I felt bad for leaving you guys when I did back at the church."

"Yeah. That was a pretty bitchy move." Samson added insult to injury only to earn himself a bonk on the head from Filia, though she ultimately ended up just hitting herself but it was nothing.

"You're a really good friend. Thanks for saving us. Samson's grateful too."

Samson huffed at Filia's claim.

"Right, Samson? The least you can do is give him a thank you." Filia turned her head so that the two boys were face to face.

"…" Samson remained quiet but soon the Player greeted him with puppy dog eyes and a fairly innocent look, this made Samson shiver and turn his glare to the side but the look from the Player was now stuck in his mind and he knew he couldn't be a bad sport to such a face. "Ugh…Thanks for not being a total pansy."

The Player nearly choked and shook his head, pretty much expecting Samson to reply the way he did. "That's as good as its going to get, isn't it? You're welcome."

"Hmp…"

"Yay!" Filia cheerfully threw her hands into the air as she saw the two somewhat get along but she quickly recoiled as her body was still in a lot of pain from last night. "Ow, ow, ow...guess my body hasn't fully recovered yet."

The Player reacted by holding his hands out to her as she flinched from the pain but stopped once he saw that she was ok, "Yeah, don't try to move too much."

Filia giggled lightly, a bit embarrassed at her own fault, "Guess I need to be more careful when choosing my battles."

"Don't worry, kid. We'll get stronger and when we do we'll show them what for. Once we get that out of the way we'll get the Skull Heart and you can get your wish."

"Right." She nodded.

The Player was bit quieter than usual. He got up from the floor and looked down to Filia. "Hey, I'm gonna go out for a walk, ok?"

"Hm? A walk?"

"Yeah. I just wanna go out and get some air."

"Let me come with you." She tried to stand up but she flinched once again, falling to one knee as the bruises on her legs caught her sudden movement. "A-Aah…my legs."

"No, no, you stay here. You're injured and I want you to rest." He held his hand out to her. Once she took his hand he helped her off of the floor and gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. "I'll be back soon, ok?"

She gazed at the Player, obviously worried that something may happen to him if Samson and herself weren't around however Filia didn't want to seem pessimistic, she couldn't find it in herself to lie with a smile, "Just...be careful." was all she could say with a look of concern.

"I will." He smiled at her. With their final exchange in words he made his way for the door and left the room. Filia sat on the bed, looking down to the floor, still feeling a bit worried.

Later that same morning the Player was once again walking about the streets of the glamorous New Meridian. Unlike all the other times before there was no panic, just himself and a crowd of people going about their daily routine.

"...Filia's after the Skull Heart too. Goddamn it, this just makes my mission more difficult. I want my wish! But I don't want to be selfish about it...she lost her memories so I should just let her have it. Actually...no! I came here for one thing and one thing only so why should I even change my mind now? I'll get my wish and get the hell out of this place! It's so simple!" The Player hadn't realized he was talking to himself aloud in public. As he walked down the street people were keeping safe distances from him as if he was crazy. "But...she is my friend and I care about her...even Samson is growing on me." he stated to himself with more confidence than he did in his previous claim. Out of the blue a black car pulls up to the sidewalk and drives alongside him.

The passenger seat window rolled down and a mildly overweight man dressed in a sharp looking suit revealed himself to the Player. "Hey. Hey, you!"

The Player turned and saw the man who was trying to get his attention.

"How you doin'? Aren't you the new kid on the block? The talk of the town. The one they call 'The Player'?"

"Um. Yes?"

"Great. I'm glad we found you because we have a little business proposition for you. Get in the car."

The man was obviously bad news and the Player knew this but the look in his eyes was a bit intimidating. "You kidding me? I don't know who you are and mom always said not to talk to strangers."

"That's all good, son. You'll get to know me. Just get in the car. Heh, don't worry about mommy. We got candy and puppies back here too." He jokingly made fun at the Player while beginning to laugh much to the Player's discomfort.

"...I need an adult."

The goon pulled out a revolver and aimed it at the now frightened younger male, "I am an adult." he replied with a sinister smile.

The Player was taken to Cirque des Cartes, a well-known circus in the Canopy Kingdom. While seeming harmless to the general public there was actually a darker secret behind the circus's origin and those who own it. The circus had seen a full house and was coming down after the final performance that had just took place. The goon entered backstage where all the other performers were. As he entered they all greeted him warmly, addressing the man as 'boss'. The Player, against his will, was right behind him.

"Glad to have you along, I knew you were a sensible one, son."

"You pointed a gun at me dude, it was either this or get shot…"

The sinister man chuckled in amusement, "As I said, you're sensible. You'd be surprised how many are willing to take a bullet." The Player remained silent, not wanting to speak or even humor the gangster with a response. "Now I've got a little job I want you to do for me. I'll explain in detail but I'm waiting for your partner to arrive. She needs to get this too."

"Should've saw this coming…" The Player muttered to himself.

"Ah, there she is. Right on time." The man began to pat the Player's back to get his attention, he then pointed to one of the individuals within the small group of performers.

A young girl who's attire consisted of a sleeved mini dress with orange and black colors. She was beautiful and had simple black eyes, slightly tan skin, and mint green hair. On her head was a peculiar orange hat that appeared to have muscular arms. She was truly a sight to behold.

"...Cerebella." He stated to the Player, revealing her name, once again sporting a sinister smile. The Player had his head turned away from the man, not paying him much mind.

The girl eagerly made her way over to the duo with stars in her eyes while looking up to the older male, "Did you see me, Vitale?" she asked enthusiastically, "When Feng told me you were coming, I practiced all weekend and added the elephants! And they didn't poop on her this time!"

Feng, Cerebella's friend of Asian descent, was nearby and heard her. "...Did you really need to bring that up, Cerebella?"

Cerebella giggled quietly at Feng.

"Yes, yes...it was fine." The man, Vitale, spoke to her, "That hat of yours can put on quite a show. Now, to business - can I speak to you in private? I have a job that requires your...special talents."

Cerebella's look of excitement died down to a more disappointed expression after hearing him. "Oh...sure. Is that why you came?" Cerebella noticed the Player by Vitale's side and couldn't help but get suspicious. "Hey, who's this guy?"

Vitale placed his hand on the Player's back and moved him forward, closer to Cerebella, for an introduction. "This is going to be your partner. He goes by the street name 'The Player'."

The Player's attention was now on Cerebella and his eyes were all over her attractive figure now that he saw her up close. "Hell-ooooooo, gorgeous. Are you an angel? Because you sure-"

"Save it." Cerebella stopped him dead in his flirtatious tracks, clearly uninterested in what he had to say, "Vitale, I don't need a partner. I can do these things on my own."

"Trust me, Cerebella, he will be of much use to us."

Cerebella merely smacked her teeth a bit but was sure not to give much back talk to Vitale and simply nodded. "Yes sir."

"Good." He said with a smile. "Now I need you to...deal with someone for me, Cerebella."

"What do you mean? Do you want me to catch them?"

"Think of it as...bringing them to justice, my dear - a crime against the family cannot go unpunished. The perpetrator is Nadia Fortune, the infamous feral cat burglar."

The Player couldn't help but chuckle getting the image of cat stealing something from a man as well connected as Vitale. He envisioned a cat running away with a greasy bag of food with Vitale giving chase in a heavy sweat. "You want her to chase a cat? I'm thinking you'd want her to put someone down or something. Hehe…"

"Shut up!" Cerebella yelled at him, "Don't you dare question Vitale, scrub."

The Player had jumped back a bit at her sudden outburst. "W-Whoa! At ease! I don't want to be here just as much as you don't want me to be!"

"Guys." Vitale spoke down to the two to get them back in focus, "She has stolen something from us, a jewel called the 'Life Gem'. Its value cannot be understated."

"A thief?" Cerebella pondered to herself, "No one messes with the Medicis!"

"Pfft, girl scout." The Player teased under his breath.

"We thought she had been...taken care of, yet somehow she remains a thorn in our side. You are to pursue her and reclaim the Life Gem from her at ANY cost...Am I understood?"

"So what if she doesn't cooperate?" The Player asked.

"ANY means necessary." Vitale repeated himself, causing an unwelcomed feeling to fall upon the Player's shoulder.

Cerebella bumped her chest with a confident grin. "Any cost - got it! Consider it done, Vitale!"

He smiled at her obedience. "There's a good girl. And you, Player?"

"Y-Yeah...I got it."

Vitale nods at him with a smile. "Good. Some of Dahlia's men claim to have seen her in that horrid fish-town, Little Innsmouth. I recommend you two start your search there. Now don't fail me." He turned his back to them and exited the room.

"Yes! I've got this!" Cerebella called out to him while waving.

The Player wasn't interested in her attitude, he had his arms crossed while looking at her. "You're just about a 'yes master' kind of girl, aren't you?"

"Ok. Look, I don't know who you are or why Vitale wanted you to come with me but let me get something straight: I don't trust you nor do I really care about your motives. You're merely tagging along because Vitale said so, got it?"

"Look, girl, at first I thought you were cute but your attitude is really unattractive. I honestly wasn't intending to be here, ok? Your boss found out who I was and made me come along with him."

She crossed her arms with a skeptical look. "And just who ARE you?"

"I don't know! I've been told I'm this entity with great power that I can lend to certain people or some kind anime cliché BS like that. I was only here for-"

Cerebella held her hand up dismissively, "Yeah, yeah. We've got a job to do. Can we just get this started?" she placed a hand on her hip and made her way toward the exit.

The Player watched as she walked away from him, he remained quiet to see if she was really just going to leave after cutting him off as she did. "Whoa, whoa! You're just gonna cut me off and-"

Cerebella was already walking out the door, "I'm going on ahead. With or without your help." she continued. She opened the door which closed soon after her.

The Player slightly exposed his teeth in a annoyed manner, he wanted to say something but at this point all he wanted was to get out of whatever he had gotten himself into. He sighed and made his way for the exit, following after Cerebella.

The two took to the streets and began the search for Nadia Fortune. The Player was still new to the Canopy Kingdom and Cerebella wasn't too familiar with the residential and business district side of the Canopy Kingdom. The duo weren't having the best time finding directions, the Player was following Cerebella's lead so wherever she went he was right behind her.

"Hm…maybe if I go this way then maybe I'll be able to find…no, no, that way leads to the park area." Cerebella took a moment to stop, looking around to better weigh her options but as she stopped the Player, who wasn't paying attention, accidentally walked into her. "Uh! Hey, watch it."

"Oh, my bad. What'd you stop for?"

"I'm trying to figure out where exactly this Little Innsmouth place is. Geez, where's a map when you need one?"

"Wait. So…you have no idea where we're going?"

"Not yet."

The Player placed his hands in his jeans pockets and smirked at Cerebella who continued looking around, not letting the situation get to her. "And this gangster sent you to handle a job for him? Not a very organized organization."

Cerebella turned to the Player and gave him a cold stare. He didn't know it but Cerebella took great offense to those who badmouth the 'family' she was a part of. She grabbed a hold of the Player by his collar and backed him against a nearby building, "Talk trash about the Medici's again and I'll make sure you never speak again." The Player's eyes widened as he looked down to Cerebella, he didn't speak and remained quiet while staring down to her, "You got that?" Cerebella asked while scowling at him.

The Player's eyes fluttered, a smile of satisfaction forming on his face the more he looked down. "Dude…I can see down your shirt and this view and simply amazing. Goddamn!"

Cerebella's cheeks were now a light shade of red out of embarrassment. She quickly released him and took a step back, the hand from her large hat covered her chest area as she retaliated. "W-What?! Why would you just randomly spout something like that?"

"….."

Cerebella noticed the Player's puzzled gaze, with her chest covered there couldn't have been much for him to stare at now, "What? What is it now?" she asked with a raised brow.

He pointed to the large hat on her head, "Um. That hat, it's covering you and its making facial expressions as well. What uh…what's that about?"

"Hm? Oh, you mean Vice Versa? Yeah. It's able to move about on its own. Why? Is that really surprising?"

"Um, yes. It's kinda cool." He became more amazed with the hat than Cerebella's assets, it even had a pretty cool name. The Player approached Cerebella and gave Vice Versa's muscular arm a gentle poke to see what it felt like, Vice Versa flexed its mighty bicep for the Player. Cerebella was a bit surprised at this sudden turn around and slightly turned her head away, preventing the Player from touching any farther, she readjusted her head once he realized she didn't want him touching her hat.

"You've never heard of a living weapon? What rock did you crawl out of?"

"I'm just not from around here. I've only been in the Canopy Kingdom for a day. Most of everything I see is brand new to me. 'Living Weapon', you said. That sounds cool. So are there more?"

"Well…yeah, but that's not important. If you've only been here for a day how can Vitale just bring you on board like its nothing? I don't understand."

"If you let me explain earlier you would know. I don't know how or why he knows me but that basta- I mean…Vitale forced me to come along. He said if I didn't co-operate I'd be sleeping with the fish."

Cerebella eyed the Player from head-to-toe, "Hmm. You don't look very tough. Not very muscular and I doubt you've ever gotten your hands dirty." this only fueled Cerebella's confusion considering her previous work of assisting in wars against rival gangs, fighting against the law and whatever it was Vitale needed her to do. "This doesn't make sense."

"Um, thanks for the compliments? But let's not think too hard on it. This is something we're just going to have to deal with. Ok?"

"…Yeah."

The Player noticed Cerebella was a bit discouraged. He couldn't truly identify why because he didn't know much about her but she gave off the 'lone wolf' vibe for him. He figures she's not used to having company around when handling her business but he placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a supporting pat. "Come on. Don't worry about it. Let's just get this gem thing back and then we can go about our regular lives again."

Cerebella felt his hand and she faced him, meeting with a friendly smile from her partner. She could tell he wasn't a bad person...based on the story he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe Vitale had gotten him confused with somebody else, but whatever the case may be Cerebella wasn't too keen on her boss trusting anyone else to handle his personal jobs. Cerebella nods at the Player's response, though unable to return the smile. "Right. Thanks. But we should get moving. We don't want to waste any time."

"Of course but we don't even know where to look." The Player scanned the area, hoping to find some form of information board containing a map of the city but no luck, nothing but pedestrians going about their lives. The Player turned to one of the pedestrians passing him by, "Oh, uh, excuse me!"

The pedestrian noticed the Player was talking to him and he stopped, removing the headphones from his ears and placing them around his neck, "You talkin' to me?"

"Yeah. Do you know where Little Innsmouth is?"

"Little Innsmouth? Uuuum, yeah." He pointed in the direction toward the downtown area of New Meridian, "What you want to do is go down this block. Once you hit 15th street make a left. You should see 'MadMan's Café' around there. Make another left and you'll be on the right track. It's a business district, you can't miss it."

"Ok, just down this block and a left? All right. That should do. Thanks, man."

The Player waves but is soon pulled away by Cerebella, "Would you come on?"

"A-Aye! Why you pullin' me along like that?" He asked while taking his arm away from Cerebella's grip.

"Why not ask him if he knows the thief? Oh! Better yet, have them do a bit of sky writing that reads 'There's some a couple Medici muscle coming down to Little Innsmouth in case somebody didn't realize it. You could've blown our cover. If anything goes down in that area they might identify us."

"I'm pretty sure they'd identify us because you're dressed like a clown and wearing a big ass hat. I shouldn't have to point out the more 'obvious' reason." He grins, peering down to her chest once again.

Cerebella noticed his gaze and followed his stare down to her breasts which she covered up before stomping her foot, "Will you cut that out?!" the blush she had on earlier resurfaced. Seeing her red cheeks made the Player laugh in amusement. He didn't mean her any harm and had his own way of playing around. He took the lead and began walking down the street, following the directions provided to him by the civilian from earlier. Cerebella huffed and followed him in an adorable pouty fashion.

The duo casually made their way through the crowd, the farther they traversed the busier the streets got. The Player was used to this due to his upbringing back home, city life was nothing new for him but Cerebella was a bit overwhelmed by everything around her. Despite growing up under the Medici family Cerebella was always kept in from the world, usually only staying in with her circus friends until Vitale needed her to handle a job as Medici muscle, even then most jobs didn't require her going far and if it did she was driven to certain locations and handled the rest. Cerebella kept close to the Player and was sure to not let the new sights get to her. The Player was getting familiar with the area, he managed to spot the MadMan's Café just across the street, it was here that he realized he's been here before, that was the same café he and Filia met in. As he walked by he couldn't help but stare at the café, wondering if Filia was still doing ok back at the hotel. The Player only managed to book them a single day in their suite, if the job he was on took any longer then Filia would be out on the street with nowhere to go. He sighed gently but suddenly walked into a pole. The sound of the metal clinging from the impact could be heard as he backed away, rubbing his aching forehead. Cerebella witnessed this and laughed at the Player's recklessness. With one eye shut from the pain he looked back at her with an embarrassed smile. She tried concealing her laughter by placing her palm over her mouth but it was clear as day she was laughing at him, even Vice Versa had a snickering expression…whether or not the hat was laughing was anybody's guess since it couldn't speak.

A familiar scent struck the Player's nose the closer they got to their destination, at this point he was following the scent rather than actually remembering the directions given to him. "Hm…" He began to smell the air similar to that of a dog, "I know this smell. That Yu-Wan restaurant is around here."

"You've been here before?"

"Yeah. I think I have. It's that Chinatown like area I was in the other day. I never managed to get any food because some crazy stuff went down." He continued to sniff about the area.

Cerebella looked on as he did this and couldn't help but notice how odd it looked, "Um, what the heck's up with you? Are you part dog or something?" she placed her hands on her hips while watching him.

"No, no, this is good. How can you not smell that?"

"I smell it but I'm not gonna act like I don't have any home training."

"You grew up in a circus, ya freak." The Player playfully teased, not meaning any offense by his remark.

"What was that?!" Cerebella stomped her foot on the ground while holding up a vengeful fist. A red vein appeared on her head to comically symbolize her anger.

"Hush, boob lady. The scent speaks to me…" Before Cerebella could reply the Player was already well on his way, jogging over to a flight of stairs that apparently lead to the upper level of the seaside district. Just across from him was the Yu-Wan restaurant which sat at the heart of the town. "Well, my nose was right. There's the restaurant but how the hell do I get over there? The section I'm on doesn't have any walkways leading over there. Whoever was the urban planner needs to get the electric chair." The Player made his way around the wooden pathway to find a way across.

Walking along the same pathway as him was a familiar feline figure, stretching her arms above her head before placing them behind her head. Based on her smile she hadn't a care in the world. "That meal was the cat's pajamas! I'll literally burst if I'm not careful! Hehe."

"Ok, now if I keep going along this way it looks like I'll make it to the other side of the district. If I'm not mistaken there's another pathway just beyond here that'll get me- Huh?" He noticed the woman walking in his direction and couldn't help but identify her…how could he not? Every time he's seen her she's been without her head. The two got closer and closer and as they crossed paths she casually strolled by him without notice but once she made her way by he stopped and looked back to her. "…Excuse me! Ms.?"

The woman's cat ears twitched when he spoke, she turned and faced him, still maintaining her smile, "Mew? You're talking to me?"

"Uh, yeah. You see I'm kinda new around here and I'm sorta lost. I had a few questions if you don't mind pointing me in the right direction of a few places?"

"Oh. Sure! I can help ya out. What do you need to know?"

"Great. Well first…do you know where Little Innsmouth is?"

"Well that's a no brainer. You're already there. This is Little Innsmouth. Home sweet home."

"Oh really? Heh…guess that makes me look a little stupid."

"Yep!" She continued to smile with her blunt reply as if nothing was wrong. The Player huffed and the woman laughed playfully at his reaction, "Actually…nyaow that I think about it you look familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"

The Player was surprised that the woman was just now realizing he was familiar. He rubbed the side of his cheek with one finger sheepishly, trying his best not to let the horrifying sights from their previous encounters get to him, "Uh, I'd be lying if I said we hadn't. Yeah. We certainly did meet before. I met you when I first got off the blimp ship…thingy the other day."

"Ah! Nyaow I know! You're the same guy that stopped my body for me. You freaked out and ran off before I had the chance to thank you."

"Well I'm not used to seeing people without their heads and being alive without it no less. How were you even able to do that?"

"Hmmmm, that's my little secret." She teased with a cute cat like smile, "What's your name anyway? I get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future."

"You can call me the Player, it's sort of a street name. And you are?"

"Nya? 'Player'? That's pretty cool. It's nice to meet you, 'Player'. My name is-"

Before she could fully introduce herself Cerebella approached the two, coming up from behind the cat woman. "There you are. You honestly couldn't wait up for me?" She pointed her question toward the Player who noticed her.

"Oh. I actually forgot you were tagging along with me. My bad." He snickered with one hand in his pocket, the other rubbing the back of his neck.

"Tagging along? Ha! You're the one who's tagging along. You should honestly be more careful and not wander away too far." Seeing that she had the Player's attention she was ready to throw in the bait, looking at him with a cocky smirk, "We both know you can't fight. You'd be dead in five minutes without me."

"Oh! You're a smart ass, huh?" The Player replied, taking the bait hook, line and sinker. It was Cerebella's ploy to get him a bit uppity, she was showing her playful and rambunctious side by doing this, Vice Versa was even holding an expression that resembled a cheerful smile. The Player moved over to Cerebella and held a finger up to her smug mug, "Listen tits, I'm the one with the untapped superpower. I'm the secret weapon of this operation. YOU follow MY lead."

Cerebella challenged him by moving even closer, rivaling his dominance with her own, the two were now playfully clashing foreheads, "That's funny. You're just a meat shield in case I need one." in the midst of their little scramble Cerebella just noticed the woman amusingly observing them from behind. Cerebella backed away from the Player and unintentionally caused him to fall onto the wooden walkway since he was still trying to apply force over her when they were forehead-to-forehead. "A-ha! At last. I've found you, Nadia Fortune!"

"Goddamn it, Cerebella!" The Player shouted from the ground, the attention was still focused on Cerebella and Nadia, so they paid him no mind.

"Return the Life Gem, or things are going to get rough!"

The cat woman, Nadia Fortune, looked on in curiosity, she had one arm across her midsection to support the elbow of the other that she used to hold her chin between her index finger and thumb, pondering about Cerebella's claim and how she could've possibly known about the gem. "What's this nya-o?" She eyed Cerebella from top to bottom, getting a feel for her identity, "Circus get-up, attitude to spare, low-cut dress…let me guess, you're one of Vitale's rent-a-hoods?"

"Daaaaamn. Yo, you just roasted!" The Player, out of view, spontaneously shouted out to Cerebella after Nadia made her observation, Cerebella narrowed her eyes down to him and raised her foot just above him, she gave a mild stomp to his backside, "Ack!" he shrieked afterward.

After getting the Player to shut up Cerebella's attention was back on Nadia, "Watch your tongue, you mangy thief! You stole from the Medici's and I'm here to get it back. Return the Life Gem!"

Nadia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Quit clowning around."

"Oh! Because she's in the circus. I get it." The Player spoke out from nowhere once more.

"You didn't actually think it'd be that easy, did you? I'm afraid I can't give you back the gem but I can give you walloping instead!"

Cerebella was all about business when it came to handling the Medici's work, even more so Vitale's. She knew it was about to get ugly but it wasn't anything she wasn't prepared for, most missions begin this way for her. The Player on the other hand watched the two from below, as he was still lying down on the wooden platform.

"Why does it seem like randomly breaking out into violent altercations is the only way to make progress in this kingdom?" He questioned with his finger held up between the two ladies to indicate he was talking but the girls didn't seem to pay him no mind.

Vice Versa jointed its hands together and raised them above Cerebella. Seeing the hat move took Nadia by surprise resulting in the feline lowering her guard. Vice Versa brought its large hands down upon Nadia's head and with great force destroys the walkway they were standing on, a large dust cloud arose from the impact, large planks of wood were flying everywhere as the group fell to the districts lower level. The Player bursts out in a panic while falling but in the midst of their descent Cerebella managed to grab onto him with one hand and in the other she held onto Vice Versa who managed to inflate in the air allowing them to gently float down, acting as a sort of parachute. The group managed to land safely, the wooden debris made a rough and loud crash prior to their landing.

"I'm dead. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead….am I dead?"

Cerebella cracked a small smile as she readjusted Vice Versa who took a temporary smaller form, "You're not dead, you big baby. Now open your eyes."

Doing as she instructed the Player opened his eyes and saw he was sitting on the ground before Cerebella. He placed his hand on his head and gave a big sigh in relief before looking up to his partner. He got up from the ground and brushed his rear, "What the hell were you thinking? You could've killed us being so reckless like that."

"Maybe I could've but I didn't. Did I?" She gave a playful wink to him, complete with a teasing extend of the tongue.

The Player didn't want to feed into Cerebella's actions, he simply crossed his arms and huffed while turning his head away from her but as he turned he noticed one of Nadia's legs sticking out from the wooden rubble. He took a closer step to the debris pile and noticed she wasn't moving.

"….Cerebella, did you kill her?"

"Kill? What? No." She readjusted Vice Versa back to its normal size and placed her weapon back on her head, she made her way over to the Player and investigated the sight as well. Cerebella looked on in a bit of concern, hoping the attack she delivered wasn't fatal.

"You sure? Because she's not moving and she's crushed under all this wood. Added she fell from that impressive height and I doubt anybody could survive it. You didn't have to do that."

"I didn't do it!" She lashed out at the Player unintentionally, "I'm no killer. I would never kill anybody. I bruise but I don't take lives."

Based on her expression she was clearly a bit worried by Nadia's condition. The Player turned away from Cerebella's face in doubt, wanting to believe her but she was muscle for the mafia and as such it was hard to believe that someone working for a ruthless organization could ever mean no harm to those who oppose them. He had never met any real mobster's before arriving in the Canopy Kingdom but it didn't take meeting one to know their enemies had to be dealt with.

Cerebella quickly turned back to the buried thief and went to work on moving the wood from off of her body, "Help me dig her out." she asked for the Player's assistance in a mild panic but just as she started moving the bigger pieces of wood the pile seemingly bursts into the air much to the duo's shock. Rising from out of the rubble was Nadia, who seemed completely unharmed by the fall. She stood before them and placed her hand on her shoulder, moving her neck from left to right, giving her it a good stretch.

"Man. That thing sure packs a punch. Completely took me by surprise there."

Cerebella stood up in awe, surprised to see Nadia was standing as if nothing happened. The Player was almost just as surprised as Cerebella but considering he's seen her without her head multiple times it wasn't too much of a shock that was able to stand again.

"How're you still alive?" He asked.

"Mew?" She turned to the Player as he asked her.

"This is like…the third time I've seen you survive some really impossible odds. I've seen you without your head twice and now you survive a life ending fall as well as being crushed afterward. What is your deal? Are you on god mode or something? I can't stand god mode character's."

"Um…not sure what you're talking about but yes, I'm able to survive a lot of things. My body is pretty neat. Huh? I can do lots of stuff." Nadia proudly spoke as she held her right arm back, "Liiiiiike this!" without warning she lunged her arm forward and much to the Player and Cerebella's surprise her arm stretched over them, grabbing Cerebella by the sleeve, before she could react the other arm came and grabbed the other sleeve. Now that Cerebella was within her grasp Nadia propelled her body forward at high speed and collided heads with her attacker. The impact forced Cerebella back, she hit the ground and slid a considerable distance from where Nadia delivered her attack. After the hit Nadia landed back on her feet with a competitive grin.

"Cerebella!" The Player quickly ran to her aid whilst she was holding her forehead on the ground, "Jeez, that looked like it hurt. Are you ok?"

"Nngh…I've had worse." She states, revealing a small trail of blood that leaked out from the injury on her forehead. Cerebella placed her hand on the Player's shoulder and moved him to the side as she stood in front of him. "That was an impressive trick."

"Right? As I said, I can do lots of neat stuff. Consider that payback for bashing me on top of the head earlier."

"You're standing like you didn't even feel anything."

"Oh don't get it wrong, I can very much feel pain it's just that I'm so used to...well, practically everything. I can take it like a champ. It's nothing I'm not used to."

Cerebella smacked her teeth and closed one eye as she felt more blood trickling down her face. Despite this she was ready for more and stood her ground, refusing to give up until the Life Gem was back in her possession. Before Cerebella could make the next move the Player placed his hand on her shoulder. "What are you doing? I'll handle her."

"No, no, it's not that. I don't think you should fight her. Not in your condition."

"What? I don't have time for that. I've got to get that gem back. No matter how much pain I receive I'll endure it." Cerebella yanked her shoulder away from his grip and charged forward toward Nadia, Vice Versa appeared to have grown large ram horns to match Cerebella's dash.

"Wait!" The Player called out to her but regardless of what he tried it wouldn't sway Cerebella.

Nadia was once again surprised at Vice Versa and Cerebella's abilities. Cerebella was a lot faster than she appeared, especially with such a hefty hat on her head. Cerebella managed to tackle Nadia in the gut, trapping her between Vice Versa's horns. After getting gaining enough speed Cerebella stopped and threw her head upwards, throwing Nadia off of Vice Versa thus sending her flying into the side of a building which she destroyed after smashing into it.

The house she crashed into appeared to be the house of the waitress Minette who cried out in terror from the sudden burst. She was sitting in her living room watching TV, Nadia flew in and landed in one of the chairs by the couch Minette was sitting in.

"Aaaah, damn…" Nadia rubbed the back of her head as she finally managed to stop. She opened her eyes only to see that she was in Minette's house.

"N-Nadia?"

"Oh! Hey, Minette. What's up?"

"….You just…crashed through and…."

She smiled at her timid friend and stood up from the chair, "Yeah, sorry about that. Kinda in the middle of a fight. I'll pay for all the damages. Don't worry." she gave her a thumbs up and ran out through the giant hole in the house wall. Minette could only watch in silence, unsure of how to reply to what just happened.

Nadia was quick on her feet and was approaching Cerebella at an impressive speed. She grabbed a hold of her tail and with a secure grip pulled it off, interestingly her tail seemed to have hardened with the underside being razor sharp, resembling that of a sword with this hardening technique. Cerebella whipped the injury on her forehead and opened her eye once the blood stopped flowing down her face. Nadia made an impressive leap into the air, her grip on her tail like blade tightened as she plummeted down toward Cerebella, the falling feline lunged her tail forward but Cerebella was already one step ahead, Vice Versa hardened its muscles and held out its arms in a defensive style, completely shielding Cerebella from harm. The tail blade clashed with Vice Versa's muscles, neither gaining an upper hand over the other.

Nadia grinned, becoming even more impressed with Cerebella's abilities. She pulled her tail back and placed her feet onto the living weapon's large arms, she kicked herself away, back flipping a good distance away from them. She makes a smooth landing and reconnects her tail. Cerebella felt the weight lift off of her and had Vice Versa lower its guard. The atmosphere intensified as they remained still, silently staring one another down.

From out of the sky a single bird feather slowly descended to the ground, making its way to the space between the two girls. Their eyes remained focus on the other, both sides determined to not give in until they were victorious. The feather managed to float down to eye level between them and then it finally touched the ground, the second the feather landed the two charged for each other, the fierceness in their eyes was similar to that of vicious predator's locked in a death match. The two cocked their arms back and threw a hefty punch forward this only resulted in a double punch to the face.

The impact made saliva spray from their mouth's as they recoiled onto ground, laying out on their backsides. It was a double KO.

The Player noticed the two were both down and approached them, "All right, ladies. Break it up." …but the fighting was already over so coming to play peace maker was rather pointless. Cerebella and Nadia regained their senses and rose up from the ground.

"You and that hat make a good team. I'll give him one thing, Vitale sure knows how to pick his women." Nadia stood while rubbing her sore cheek. She realized Cerebella wasn't truly as bad and morally disgusting as Medici's, it was evident when Cerebella was worried about her condition when she was trapped under the wooden platform debris from earlier, she was conscious and could hear everything both she and the Player were saying while buried. Nadia exhaled and gave a light smile to Cerebella, "Look, you seem nice…naïve but nice. I'll give it to you straight: I wasn't lying when I said I can't return the Life Gem."

Cerebella was less than amused by Nadia's statement and huffed, "…Do you seriously expect me to take the word of a thief?"

"Hold on Cerebella, let's hear her out." The Player stepped in with his hand placed on her shoulder, "What do you mean you can't give it back? Is it not with you?"

"Why do you think my body is this way? It's because I swallowed that weird gem the Fishbone Gang stole from Lorenzo. That's when that Dahlia broad and her goons caught us."

"Dahlia?" The Player muttered to himself in curiosity.

"Next thing I know, I wake up on the ocean floor, chopped up in a pile with the rest of my gang…only I'm still alive."

The Player noticed the markings on Nadia's arms, legs and neck. Based on those he pieced together just how the Medici's handled her and the image of seeing her cut up into bodily pieces along with a few others made him cringe. The Medici's were a horrid group of individuals but as are the rules in organized crime. He noticed Nadia's expression had saddened and seeing this made him feel sorry for her despite not knowing her. He could hardly believe Cerebella, clearly the opposite of the ruthless family, was associated and deeply loyal to them.

"Anyway, I'm off to steal me a Skull Heart. Say 'Hi' to your boss for me…and tell him that I'll be paying him a visit real soon. Ciao!"

Nadia smiled and waved cheerfully at the two, using her speed and agility she easily made her way to the rooftop's, fleeing the scene before Cerebella could act.

"Wait!" She called out but it was already too late, "Damn. She got away. So she doesn't have the gem…"

"She said she swallowed it remember? If it's honestly called 'Life Gem' I can pretty much bet her surviving everything she's been through is because of the gem. She definitely still has it and probably always will…unless-"

"Unless?" Cerebella questioned in concern.

The Player faced her, "Unless she ends up going to the bathroom and it ends up coming out. Let's just hope she doesn't eat too much." he shrugged with a blank expression.

Cerebella made a face of mild disgust and gave a gentle punch to the Player's shoulder, "That's nasty. But we still need to get that gem, at any means necessary."

"Right, right, of course but do you mind if we go check on somebody first?"

"Who?"

"A friend of mine. Before your boss came and snatched me up I told her I was going out for a little walk. I want to let her know that I'm ok and that I'll be coming back a little later than expected." The Player reached into his pocket and took out his wallet, opening it to see he had no money though he wasn't surprised by this, "And I'm broke. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get us a place to stay once all this is over. I only had enough for one night."

"Looks like you're struggling. And Vitale won't pay you until we finish the job."

The Player shifted an enlightened gaze toward Cerebella, "Pay? He's gonna pay me if we get this job done?"

"Well…yeah? That's how work usually goes. I don't see why he wouldn't pay you."

The Player didn't reply. He stood in awe while thinking of the massive payload he could've gotten from carrying out the job. He didn't know much about organized crime on a personal level, he only knew what he saw from fictional movies and video games which always depicted the mafia as a wealthy organization. In his mind he envisioned himself laying back on a super king sized bed with expensive silk sheets, a handful of beautiful women gathered around and worshipping him while $100 bills fell onto him from the sky as he laughed manically in his fortune.

…back in reality though his non changing expression began to creep Cerebella out. "Player? Player!"

"….H-Huh? Wha-?"

"I said you can go but make it quick. We've still got a job to do. I'll stay around here and ask around about Nadia."

Seeing that she was faithfully focused on the mission he sighed and grabbed Cerebella by the hand, pulling her along with him, "You're coming too."

"Hey! I'm not going. I have to find her!"

"There's no rush, we weren't given a time limit. Besides you're still injured so we're going to be taking it easy and fixing that nasty wound on your forehead. You were bleeding pretty good back there."

Cerebella just remembered that Nadia did bash their heads together pretty hard earlier, she nearly completely forgot about the injury on her forehead but this didn't stop her from protesting against the Player as he dragged her along. "Don't worry about me. I'm ok!"

"I don't wanna hear it." He replied.

"I'm fine!"

"Shut up."

The two continued their back and forth for most of the walk back to the city. At the hotel Filia was was sitting patiently on the couch in the front room twiddling her thumbs while Samson was occupied reading 'PlayBunny'. Filia looked toward the window and noticed the sun was going down, it had been over an hour since the Player left and it was beginning to cloud her mind with worry. "Do you think he's ok?" She asked Samson.

"Who?"

"The Player. He's been gone for a while now."

"Oh. I completely forgot about him. I don't know. I don't really ca- DAMN! Look at the rack on this chick…"

"Samson, I'm serious…"

"I'm serious too, kid." Samson reached his arm like tendrils overhead and placed the book he was reading in front of Filia, "Look at how huge they are. They gotta be implants, right?"

Filia blushed brightly once she saw the woman in the magazine and turned her head with her eyes closed, "EWW! I don't want to see that!"

Samson laughed and retracted his shape shifting tendril appendages back to normal, continuing his enjoyment of the adult content.

The sound of the front door unlocking and opening got Filia's attention, Samson was too engaged with his magazine to really care, she got up from the couch and made her way to the door but was met halfway by the Player and Cerebella. Cerebella carried Vice Versa in its smaller form so she wouldn't have much trouble getting through the doorway, she was also pretty well-mannered despite her upbringing so she respected the 'no hats indoors' rule.

"You're back!" Filia was really joyed to see that her friend had returned, "You were gone a little longer than I thought."

The Player gave a faint smile, rubbing the back of his head, unsure of how to explain everything that happened. "Uuuh, yeah. It's been a pretty active day so far. Turns out I still got a lot to do."

"Whoa…" Cerebella noticed something off about Filia, needless to say it was her hair, Samson was still tending to his reading, "Is your hair holding up that book?" she asked while pointing toward Filia.

Filia gave Cerebella an innocent yet confused smile but she just remembered she never hid Samson away. The sudden realization hit her and she placed her hands on top of her head in a panic, desperately trying to hide her parasite, "O-Oh! That's nothing! Just a new style I'm trying out. Hehe…heh…." she grinned nervously at Cerebella.

"Hey! I can't see! What gives, Filia?!" Samson shouted as her hands blocked his eyes.

"That's just the TV!" Filia continued trying to protect her secret.

The Player turned his head to Cerebella as if he was completely unaware of Filia trying to hide Samson, "She's got a bad weave demon thing named Samson. He's pretty annoying."

Samson heard the Player and dropped the magazine and placed his hands onto Filia's wrists, pulling her hands away from his eyes. Filia could only stand there in dismay, staring helplessly at Cerebella, "Hey! You're the annoying one!" Samson retorted to the Player.

"No way! Is that a parasite?!" Cerebella was shocked to have actually seen such a sight for herself.

"Who's asking?" Samson then directed his question toward Cerebella, he then realized that she was actually there and looking at him, "…Oh. I'm not hidden am I?"

Filia sighed. "No."

Samson released his grip on Filia's wrists and rubbed the side of his head, "Oops."

"What's the big deal?" The Player questioned, looking to Filia then Cerebella.

"You don't know?" Cerebella asked, "Hosts to a parasite in the Canopy Kingdom are ostracized. Some even being put to death. Parasitic hosting is taboo here."

The Player gave a long "Aaaaaah…" once Cerebella explained the situation to him. "So that's why you hide Samson away with your hat. I was wondering when the exposition would come."

Filia answers by nodding at the Player. "Our cover was almost completely blown at the café. That's why I was telling Samson to keep calm and not blow our cover. Who knows what'll happen if we're discovered."

"Hm." The Player plainly crossed his arms, intrigued by everything he was hearing, "I thought it was to conceal head lice."

"Lice? I'll kick your ass, kid!"

"Oh. I'm shaking, I'm shaking." The Player sarcastically remarked.

"Gah! You're lucky I don't have time for you right now. We've got way more important matters to deal with. Filia, we might need to silence this girl."

Filia eyes quickly directed themselves upward, "What?"

"She knows about us. We can't risk her ratting us out to the feds."

"But Samson-"

Before Filia could finish her sentence Cerebella stood her ground, "I'm no rat and besides I don't discriminate. It seems we're both on the opposite side of the law."

Her words piqued Samson's curiosity, "What do you mean?"

"I know your secret so I'll let you in on mine. I work for the Medici family. We're not exactly the most favorable in town but we run it and we do what we gotta do."

"The Medici's…" Samson muttered.

Filia heard Samson and once again directed her attention up to him, "Some people you know?"

"Uh…n-no. Never heard of em, Filia." The Player bit his lower lip, a grin slowly forming on his mug as he gave a quiet stare to Samson. Samson noticed the Player and knew full well what his expression was implying. He didn't bother to humor the Player with a response and simply looked in the other direction. "Well…it looks like we'll trust you. For now. If this idiot brought you here then I guess we don't have to worry about much." The Player continued grinning, nodding at Samson without saying a word, he then made his way upstairs to fetch a first-aid kit.

Cerebella could see that Filia meant no harm and smiled as Samson reconsidered the possibility of a violent altercation. "Just make sure you keep this between us, got it?"

"Same goes for you."

"Phew…thankfully a fight didn't break out." Filia let out a sigh of relief, now smiling cheerfully at Cerebella, "My name is Filia by the way. It's nice to meet you. Are you friends with the Player?"

"I'm Cerebella and yeah, I guess you could say that."

The Player came back downstairs with the first-aid in hand, "You guess? Don't even front. You know damn well we're friends by now." he playfully replied revealing he heard Cerebella from upstairs. He placed the box on the kitchen counter and took out a few supplies: medical ointment, a cotton pad, rubbing alcohol and a long string of cotton bandage. "Get over here, Cerebella. Let's tend to that wound."

Cerebella placed her hand on her forehead and flinched from the soreness. She lowered her hand and saw a few traces of blood on her fingertips, the injury was still new so keeping it exposed without being treated would've been bad for her. She walked to kitchen area and stood beside the Player, waiting for him to treat her.

"Wound?" Filia asked, as she hadn't noticed her forehead before. Getting a closer look she saw the injury. Samson stretched his arm down to the floor and grabbed his magazine as Filia made her way to the kitchen as well. "Oh…that looks painful. Did you fall?"

"Not exactly. Got into a fight with this thief and she got a good hit in."

The Player began to treat Cerebella, wiping her forehead with a wet paper towel. He threw away the used sheet and grabbed the small bottle of alcohol which he used on one of the cotton pads, he placed the pad gently on her forehead and slowly wiped away at it. The alcohol stung resulting in Cerebella gritting her teeth a bit the moment the pad touched her skin but she quickly adjusted and kept a straight face afterward.

"A thief? Were you with her, Player?" Filia asked.

"Yeah. But after the fight was over we came back here. I actually wanted to come back to let you know that I was going to be leaving out again."

After applying the alcohol to her head the Player threw away the pad and reached for the ointment, he dipped his index, middle and ring finger into the white creamy material, scooping up enough without taking too much. The alcohol was already dry enough at this point, allowing him to begin applying the cream which he rubbed in with care. He then took the cotton bandage and began wrapping it around Cerebella's forehead.

"Leaving out again? Where are you going?"

"To find that thief Cerebella fought. She's got something of value and we have to get it back. It's kinda mandatory."

"Wait, I don't understand…you were only going out for a walk this morning, right? Now you have to find a thief for something they stole?"

"Yeah. It's kind of a stupid story. The short version is: her boss found me during my walk, forced me into his car at gunpoint, told me I was going to help her retrieve this stolen artifact, we track the thief to Little Innsmouth, they fought, beat each other to a draw and then the thief ran. As I mentioned before I just wanted to come back and let you know that I might be gone for a little while longer. After that we can get back to our search, ok?"

"…All that happened? See? I knew I should've went with you. Let me help."

"No." Cerebella quickly rejected the idea in a stern voice, "We don't need anybody on the outside getting involved. This is my mission. We stick to the original plan. Nothing personal, I just can't afford to fail."

Filia lowered her head in disappointment. The Player placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a little shake in a friendly attempt to get her attention, "Don't worry. We'll be fine and guess what? Cerebella was nice enough to extend our stay in the hotel. She paid for everything."

"Really? That's so nice. You didn't have to." Filia perked up, smiling at Cerebella.

Cerebella shook her head in response, "No, no. It's not an issue. He told me about your situation on the way over here. I'm sorry about the amnesia, I know it must be rough." she then crossed her arms under her bust, unintentionally giving the Player an eyeful but her attention was directed toward Filia to even notice his stares.

"It's not so bad. Ever since we met Samson has been a pretty big help and the Player has even offered to lend a helping hand too, we're still searching to find answers but I feel as long as I have these two by my side I can do anything!" Cerebella blinked twice at Filia before a warm smile formed on her face, she soon found herself giggling lightly at the amnesiac's optimism. Filia noticed and blushed, "I guess that sounds a little cheesy, huh?"

"Don't worry, I'm not laughing at you. I just wasn't expecting you to be so positive. I like that."

"It's pretty easy with friends like these. There aren't many people in the world who are willing to be supportive of those in need. I'm lucky. Even if I never regain my old memories…I'll have the new ones."

"Hm." Cerebella placed one hand on her hip and notched her mouth to the side, now wearing an uncertain expression, "You really think it'd be that simple?"

Filia tilted her head in response to Cerebella's reaction, "Huh?"

"You said even if you never regained your old memories you'd have the new ones. You can't simply replace them as if it's nothing, you know? You may not remember but what about the other's? Those looking for you, worried sick. Your old friends? Family and so on."

Cerebella raised a good point and Filia knew this. It hadn't even crossed her mind that the people associated with her original memories were most likely worried about her wellbeing. Based on what she said earlier she began to wonder if her choice of words made her come off as sounding selfish.

"She hasn't truly forgotten." The Player, out of his trance from Cerebella's breasts, finally spoke up…it seemed as though his mind was still with them despite drifting off in wonderland with perverted thoughts. Apparently he was focused enough to get the gist of the girls conversation. Filia and Cerebella turned to him, Samson was still flipping through the pages in his magazine without a care, "Filia's memories are…um, how can I put it? They're kinda 'sleep'. I know that doesn't make much sense but that's the best way I know how to put it. They're just waiting to be awakened and her journey, this search, is just what she needs to get them back."

"What makes you so sure?" Cerebella asked out of curiosity.

"When we met her friend Filia instantly remembered who she was just by hearing her voice." He then faced Filia to make sure he had the story straight, "Right?"

Filia nods at him, "Oh yeah…that did happen. At first I couldn't remember anyone, I only knew my name and that's about it. When I ran into that girl she told me her name was 'Carol', after that my memories of her came back to me and I suddenly remembered…she's a really good friend of mine. I can't explain it clearly with words but I remembered."

The Player faced Cerebella once more after Filia explained, "See? That's what I mean. We'll get her memories back, I know we will. She'll remember everything and then keep all the memories she has now. At least…that's what I figure."

Samson huffed and was pretending to gag from the Player's speech. "You're so lame, kid!"

It was about that time for another back and forth between Samson and the Player. The Player was quick to retaliate with a comeback and thus their bickering commenced. Cerebella hadn't met a group quite like them before, in fact she hasn't met anyone outside the circus crew she performed with, she stood in silence and watched their interaction, her facial expression was rather plain and unchanging as she observed them. She noticed Filia's smile as the boys argued. Despite her situation the smile was an obvious sign that she was happy and full of hope, Cerebella could see this was the result of her bond with the Player and Samson, her 'guardians'. The young circus performer reflected on her own past, despite her best attempts to please Vitale he hasn't shown the slightest interest in Cerebella, he adopted her and exposed her to the highlife she has now but nothing more, his relationship with her was more out of business than a caring father-daughter one.

Deep down…Cerebella was already well aware of this but her desperate attempt to have him see her as more than just muscle caused her to repress any doubtful thoughts. All in order to keep herself from succumbing to the very thing she hated: giving up. In a way she saw a bit of herself in Filia and if it wasn't for the happiness she displayed with her two companions she could've seen a mirror image.

Cerebella slowly cracked a smile as she continued watching the pair interact, "…Wish I had somebody looking out for me." she muttered to herself while retaining the smile she didn't even know she had.

The Player, Filia and Cerebella took it easy at the hotel for the next couple of hours. They passed the time by making small talk, playing card games at the request of Samson and his gambling interests, sharing more details on who they are: discussing their likes, dislikes and so on. They even touched on deeper subjects such as life goals, ambitions, desires and dreams for the future, a topic Cerebella hadn't thought of until it came up in their conversation. There wasn't much for her to think on since she was exposed to the finer things at an early age with the Medici's, for her it felt as though everything in life was already given to her…everything except the one thing she wanted most. Her response to the subject in hand, as well as Filia and the Players, were shared through inaudible exchange. The only thing that could be taken from the scene was the groups interest in hearing each other's answers with supportive smiles, looks of interest and occasional laughter in between replies.

Night soon fell and the whereabouts of the Life Gem was still unknown. Cerebella was never one to waste time when it came to carrying out Vitale's orders but, to her surprise, the time spent with Filia and the Player felt a bit more important than carrying out the mission as quickly as she could. Cerebella sat on the opposite end of the couch, while Filia occupied the other half, sound asleep along with Samson, she sat in silence, looking down to Vice Versa in its miniature form with wondering eyes, lost in thought. The Player entered the room, tapping her shoulder to get her attention, he held out a small can of soda to her.

"Want one?" He offered, "They were in the fridge so I guess its complimentary or something."

Cerebella looked down to the can and then back up to the Player with a smile, she sat Vice Versa to her side and took the can from him, "Thanks."

The Player nods and sat on the second couch by the wall. He carefully opened his can so that the 'snap' wouldn't be loud enough to disturb Filia or Samson, once opened he chugged the entire soft drink in a matter of seconds, the can was small so it wouldn't have taken much to be done with it anyway. After finishing he wiped his mouth and noticed Cerebella hadn't opened hers, judging by her facial expression there was something on her mind. He bit his lower lip, unsure if it was a good idea to bring it up but just sitting there wasn't making much progress either. "You feeling ok?" He asked on a whim.

Cerebella heard him but didn't make eye contact, she kept her focus down to her soda, "Yeah. Just thinking I guess." she began to slowly swirl the can around, she didn't seem too interested in drinking it.

"I'm guessing you're thinking about the thief?"

"Yeah." She nods in response, her grip on the can tightened and her expression slowly formed to a look of mild frustration, "Can't believe I let her get away like that."

"She was stronger than you anticipated but you both seem pretty even."

Cerebella casually shrugged, "I guess." she placed her fingernail underneath the can's ring pull and, like the Player, carefully snapped it back so that it wasn't loud enough to disturb Filia. She raised the can up to her mouth and took a small sip.

"You guess? Well, then again, I guess she did kinda kick your ass." Cerebella nearly choked the moment she heard him, she wanted to reply quickly but she still had her mouth full of soda, she smiled behind her full mouth from seeing the Player's smug look, "You were all like 'Ack!' and 'Oof!', I should've jumped in and saved your sorry butt."

Cerebella managed to swallow, swiping her wrist across her mouth as she smiled back at him, "MY ass got kicked? You must've been delirious from the smell of your own fumes emitting from your pants."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" He continued to hold his playful yet challenging smirk.

"You better check your drawers," She continued on, "I'm sure you shit yourself when we were falling off the upper boardwalk."

The Player's face scrunched up for a brief second. The two found one another exchanging death stares before laughing underneath their breath to the best of their abilities. Filia only shifted once in her sleep from hearing them but it didn't seem to disturb her in the slightest, her body was most likely just readjusting itself for a comfortable sleep position. The Player and Cerebella saw Filia move, both their eyes were now on her as she continued to sleep peacefully.

"She looks so innocent in her sleep." Cerebella stated.

"She's innocent even when she's awake." The Player replied, "I guess that has something to do with her memory loss. Makes me wonder who she was in her past life."

"Just stay with her and you will. She'll need your company too."

"You think so, huh? It feels nice being needed." The Player crushed the empty can in his hand and stood up from the couch. "So, you ready to go?"

"Go?" She questioned.

"To find the thief. Duh. We still got a job to do and now that Filia's sleep I won't have to argue about her coming with us. Hopefully I can be back before morning."

Cerebella took the final sip, once it was empty she stood up from the sofa and crushed the can in her hand. Once the can was crushed she grabbed the miniature Vice Versa and approached the Player, "We'll get it done. Don't worry. I think I already have a lead on where she was heading."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm. It looked like she was heading toward the Grand Cathedral. I'll capture her and-"

"We." The Player corrected.

Cerebella slouched forward slightly but readjusted herself up right in an instant, "WE'LL capture her and take her back to Vitale. He'll think of something since she swallowed it."

"The Grand Cathedral…huh?"

"Something wrong?"

The Player shook his head after taking a moment to think, "Mmm. Nah. It's nothing."

"You're being weird but whatever."

The Player rolled his eyes at Cerebella's playful claim and gave her a quick slap to the rear to amp her up similar to what athlete's do for one another before a game. The sudden slap to her butt made her jump and shriek, "Shut up. Come on, come on. Let's get this done so we can get paid."

"You play too much. Stupid." Cerebella couldn't help but chuckle as she began to walk toward the door. The Player shook his head, casually wearing his signature smile as he began to walk after her.

"Don't forget, kid." Samson spoke up just as the Player took the first few steps. The Player stopped in his tracks and faced the couch Filia was sleep on. "You told Filia you'd help her get her memories back. You won't be any use to us dead."

"Could've sworn you were sleep. You get off to listening to other people's conversation? Heh. Have some faith in me, will ya? I'm not gonna die. I need you guys just as much as you need me."

"We don't need you. We were fine until you came along but now you've connected yourself with Filia on a personal level and it's made things a bit more complicated."

"Complicated how?"

"Look, just make sure you don't die. If something happened to you it'll affect Filia and in turn it affects me as well and that's the last thing I need."

The Player faced forward, "Fine. I'm glad to see you care. I'll be back soon. Sleep well." he proceeded on, making his way out of the apartment. The sound of the front door opening and closing marked his absence.

"How the hell did he get himself involved with the Medici's? If anybody in that organization gets wind of Filia's condition everything I've done would've been for nothing and this whole thing will be blown. I can't let anything stop me now. I've come too far…I don't know what'll happen to you, kid but whatever happens just know that it wasn't personal."

Samson let out a long sigh as Filia nudges in her sleep. It was unclear what exactly Samson was feeling about everything that's happened so far, including the Player's involvement, but regardless of it all he was absolutely adamant on seeing these unknown plans he has for an unsuspecting Filia through until the very end.

Meanwhile the Player and Cerebella were back on the case of the stolen Life Gem. Their travels have lead them to the Grand Cathedral. The cathedral was all too familiar for the Player, it was the sight of Double, the unholy abomination he and Filia encountered just the other day. The sight was still engraved within his mind, he shuttered just thinking about it.

"There it is." Cerebella pointed as they walked down the stone path leading to the large double door entrance of the church. "Nadia has to be somewhere around here. I can feel it."

"Uh…y-yeah. Yep. I bet…the same thing. M-Mhm." The Player was obviously paranoid. He was frequently looking over his shoulder as if something was watching him. Cerebella noticed how strange he was acting and raised a brow in confusion. "H-Huh?" His voice cracked in fear, "You say something, B-Bella?"

"No? Are you feeling ok? You're acting strange."

"I'm not scared. You're scared! Especially you, Cerebella!"

"What are you talking about?"

"…Ok, look, last time I was here things didn't go so well."

"You've been here before?"

"Unfortunately yes. The things I've seen behind those doors has mentally scarred me. I'll never be able to get the horrors out of my mind."

"Aaaw. You're scared. That's cute." Cerbella's condescending tone couldn't be more apparent, she wrapped her arm around the Player's neck and brought him into a hug that resembled a headlock, "You don't have to worry little man. I'll handle all the scary stuff."

"No, I'm serious. There was this creepy nun looking chick. She was kinda cute at first. She had a nice hour glass like body. Her breasts were pretty impressive and it looked like she had a booty for days…not to mention she-" He suddenly felt Cerebella's lock on his neck tighten, "Aaah! Uh, yeah, she was a blonde too."

Cerebella unwrapped her arm from around his neck and placed her hand on her hip, "That's it? You're scared of a nun?"

"No. I didn't even get to what got me so creeped out. She opened her mouth and turned inside out."

"Turned inside…out?"

"It was something like that. I can't really describe it. There was also this nurse looking lady. Her breasts were like 'POW!', honestly they may have been a little bigger than yours."

"Shut up." Cerebella went back to focusing on more important matters. She approached the church's entrance and slowly opened one of the double doors, just enough to get a peek inside. "Oh…look!"

"I'm getting déjà vu…." The Player hesitantly approached the church and peeked inside from the opposite side of the door. Inside was the cat thief, Nadia, at the mercy of the nurse, Valentine. The Player quickly identified her. "Uh! That's her! That's the nurse lady."

"You sure?" Cerebella asked while looking over to him.

He nods in response, "Yeah. Definitely. I recognize those E cups anywhere."

"…You're pathetic. I bet they're fake too."

"Jealous much? What's your size?"

"D's"

"Really? That's not ba-"

"D's nuts. Now shut up."

Meanwhile…

Valentine had Nadia laying on the floor, apparently in defeat and in pieces, her limbs were scattered about the church's floor before her. "…Despite being mutilated so, the Feral's body still lives. Simply amazing. I must perform more tests." She grinned with an enthusiastic smirk.

Cerebella grit her teeth and knew something had to be done, if Valentine got her hands on Nadia things would only get more complicated. "Tests? To hell with that. Player, we've got to do something."

"Yeah. But we shouldn't just charge in like idiots. I think we should come up with a plan and then-"

'BOOM!' The church's double door was kicked in and Cerebella rushed in to confront the voluptuous nurse, "Hands off that cat!" Cerebella called out while pointing to Valentine, "The Medici's have a score to settle with her."

"You freaking idiot!" The Player could be heard shouting from the church's entrance. Knowing the gig was up he walked in and stood beside Cerebella, he was going to make sure he didn't make the same mistake he made with Filia just a day prior. He was going to stay by Cerebella's side.

Valentine couldn't help but smile at the appearance of Cerebella. She didn't seem too surprised, almost as if she was expecting company sent from the powerful mafia family, "…Did you hear that, kitty? The Medici's lapdog has come to save you! And she's brought the newbie. Sorry, but there's no way I'm giving up my new toy-"

The Player leaned over toward Cerebella, holding his hand in front of his mouth so that Valentine couldn't see what he was about to whisper, "Why? I bet you have plenty that vibrate back at home." Cerebella nearly cracked in laughter but she kept her composure, gently elbowing the Player's side.

"We have plenty of playtime ahead in the lab." Valentine continued. The Player only let out a single 'Ha!' in retort. "Double! We have work to do!"

"Double?" The Player asked unaware of the blonde nun standing directly behind him.

"Ignorant children." a demonic sounding voice creeped up behind him. Hearing the familiar voice sent a chilling shiver up the Player's spine making him jump in fear and into Cerebella's arms. She was now holding him bridle style as he shivered in fear.

"THAT'S HER! THAT'S HER!" He shouts in a panic.

Cerebella tried her best to keep him up but his constant movement made it difficult to keep her balance. "That nun lady you were talking about? She does fit the profile…look, Player, we're gonna have to fight. Vitale said you'd be useful so now I think it's time for you to show me what you're made of."

"Bull-Shit. I'm not fighting that demon!"

"Fine. Then handle the nurse."

The Player took a look over to Valentine. She didn't seem like much of a threat. She was a beautiful woman with all the right features. Valentine noticed his look and smiled at him…being the fool he was he mistook it for a seductive hint that she wanted 'something' more from him. He got himself off of Cerebella and brushed his shoulders off, acting as if he didn't just display his true cowardice. "Ok. I can do that. Have fun!" He happily skipped over to his opponent.

Cerebella sighed and shook her head, she took Vice Versa and placed it on her head. Once it was securely fitted onto its user the large, bulky arms reappeared in their intimidating stature. Cerebella got within her fighting stance, the nun, Double, smiles and opens her eyes only to reveal nothing but a crimson red replacing her eyes. Before she knew it Double held out her arm and stretched it out toward her, her long arm had the appearance of what seemed to be multiple human like faces, keeping only their empty eye sockets and mouth's, which seemed to be frozen in a state of screaming agony. Double grabs a hold of Cerebella's wrist, much to the latter's shock, and retracts her extendable arm, pulling her along.

Cerebella quickly thinks of a counterattack and just as she gets within range of Double she lifts her feet off of the ground and shoved her heels into Double's chest. Double is clearly unfazed by Cerebella's kick but there was more to it than that, Cerebella grins as the sound of piercing flesh could be heard. Double looks down and sees two hidden blades sticking out from the heel of Cerebella's boots, the blades were long enough to pierce through the other side of Double's body. Seeing that she made contact Cerebella kicks off of her and frees herself from the nun's grip. With Vice Versa's help she back flips away to get some distance.

"Heh. You like that? I'm full of surprises too."

Blood drips from the holes in Double's chest but despite the injury Double's expression remained unchanged. Her lifeless smile and red eyes met with Cerebella's look of confidence. Before Cerebella knew it the holes in Double's body began to heal before her eyes.

_'She can heal herself?'_ She thought to herself in a calm state of mind. _'Damn. How am I supposed to get through something like that?'_

"What's the matter, child? Why do you hesitate? Are you afraid?"

Double's taunt reaches Cerebella's ears resulting in a huff from the younger fighter, "I'm not afraid of anything. I'm just thinking about how sweet it's gonna be once I beat you. The Player tells me you're some kind of monster."

"Did he?" She chuckled, "Humans are the real monsters."

The Player casually strolled his way over to Valentine, standing before her with his head held high. "Well, sweetness, let me be the first to tell you: you're pretty hot. I wouldn't mind having you give me a checkup."

"Pfft!" Valentine was taken aback by how corny he was, "Is that right?" she continued to smile gleefully.

"Oh hell yeah. Have you seen yourself in the mirror? You're all…boom!" He motioned his hands to gesture an hourglass figure the moment he 'boom'ed her, "Specifically you're all so perfect in the chest area."

"Flattery will get you everywhere."

"Even in bed?"

"Yep."

"…If you're not pulling my leg I guess we could, y'know, slip out the back door and-"

In the blink of an eye Valentine vanished without a trace. Before the Player could even react to her disappearance a seductive voice whispered pleasantly into his ear, "A hospital bed." Valentine reappeared behind him and proceeded to deliver a swift kick to his side, the blow sent the poor boy flying across the church, his body hit the floor multiple times before crashing into a nearby pillar. After striking him Valentine placed her foot back on the floor. The Player sat in a pile of rubble rubbing the back of his head. There was a heavy cloud of dust in his surrounding area.

"Ooooooouch! Goddamn….she hits like a truck! How didn't that kill me?" He managed to pick himself up, coughing and swinging his hand around to lift the lingering dust from around him. "Aaaah, where is she?"

The moment he asked Valentine appeared before him, nearly nose to nose. He flinches back as she grabs his arm to prevent an escape, "I'm here."

A loud 'WHACK!' could be heard and the Player is sent tumbling out of the dust cloud. Cerebella, who was still fighting against Double, noticed the Player and as she was hopping from bench to bench Double could be seen giving chase in her nun form.

Double had enhanced speed and agility however Cerebella was able to keep up. She landed on the back of the last wooden bench only to be met with the speedy appearance of Double who appeared before her, swinging her long tentacle like arm for Cerebella's side, luckily she reacts fast enough and jumps into the air, having Double destroy the bench instead. Cerebella lands back on the floor and summersaults to break her fall.

"She's pretty fast. Player! How're you holding up?" She couldn't take her eyes off of Double for a second, she had to wait for a response to check on her partner.

"I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

Hearing him made Cerebella face his direction for a split second but just as she did so Double quickly charged for her. Cerebella faced forward only to be greeted by Double's red eyes. The nun lunged her fist forward only for Cerebella to block the attack with an open palm. Double pulled back and swung with a left, Cerebella bent backwards and performed another successful dodge, she pulled herself back up and bashed Vice Versa's hard bone like structure against Double's head with a vicious head-butt. Double retaliates and takes a few steps back. The Player could be seen running away and narrowly dodging flying syringes in the background.

He was completely helpless against Valentine who was simply toying with him, if anything she was enjoying herself. Valentine withdrew another syringe, from what could only be known as hammerspace, and threw it toward the Player who was running toward a wall. As he found himself cornered he turned back in Valentine's direction only to see the syringe flying toward him. He closed his eyes and yelped loudly. The sound of the needle striking the wall he had his back against got his attention, he opened one eye to find that he was unharmed. He opened the other and blinked three times before looking around to make sure he wasn't dead. When he took a look down he noticed the syringe between his legs, just BARELY missing his family jewels. His eyes widened and he broke out into a mild sweat.

Valentine was standing beside him with her back against the same wall, she was taking a bite out of a chocolate bar she had gotten from between her cleavage. "Could you imagine if I actually wanted to hit you?" The Player didn't respond and he was frozen in fear yet also relief. "You're actually a really fun time. You're weak and obviously have no fighting experience but it's cute. Maybe if I experiment on you I could turn you into a real man. An enhanced super solider."

"I-I-I-I like my body as it is now….t-th-thanks…."

"Well that's no fun. You should really learn to take risks, then again, you took a risk coming here again. You're brave. I'll give you that." She took another bite out of the chocolate in one hand and with the other she reached for the syringe, prying it out of the wall, "There is something unique about you though. I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something special about you. It's getting me more and more curious to knowing what it is."

"N-Nope. Nothing special here…I'm just some random guy who's about to piss himself."

"Don't be such a coward. There's nothing to be afraid of. My experiments are very exciting. Unfortunately, not all can be a success though but I'm sure you'll be up for it. Side effects may include: nausea , headaches…and death!"

The Player heard enough. He was finally able to regain control over himself as he slowly began to move away from Valentine who gave him a menacing death stare from her previous comment. "Oh! Would you look at the time. I gotta go shit and throw up." What he didn't know was that Valentine only said that to get him to get running again, she was in the mood for another chase.

Cerebella and Double were still at a stalemate, both girls throwing out powerful blows and blocking before any damage was dealt to either side. Cerebella is sent sliding back after blocking another one of Double's attacks, as she regains her footing she sees the Player running back in their direction. He quickly runs past Double and finally toward Cerebella. "Hey, you don't look so good. You been getting your ass kicked?" She asked as he came to a stop in front of her.

"Oh shut up. That nurse chick is a goddamn ninja or something. I can't win against that."

Valentine walked up to Double and stood by her side, still maintaining her playful smile, "I'm surprised you've lasted as long as you did."

The Player turned back and saw Valentine was still giving chase, he was powerless against her and knew there was nothing he could do. She was almost as scary as Double from the other night, the only difference was that she was really sexy...which strangely made it a little better for him. Better that than dying to a monster. He took Cerebella's hand and gave it a slap, "I'm tagging you in." he dropped her hand and ran for cover.

"Wait, I have to fight them both on my own?" She asked while watching him flee behind one of the benches.

He held up one of his arms from his safe place and gave a thumbs up, "I have faith in you!"

A few seconds later Cerebella felt a jolt of energy surge through her body. She could feel herself becoming charged with power within. This strange and sudden phenomenon wasn't visible to Double or Valentine, the only thing they saw was a motionless Cerebella still looking over to the bench where the Player was hiding. The young circus performer wasn't sure what was going on but everything she was feeling felt amazing…she had never felt so energized in her life. She looked down to her twitching palms and witnessed small electrical sparks flash around her hands. "….W-What is this? What's happening to me? This feels amazing."

Valentine huffed at Cerebella having her back turned to her opponents and faced Double. "Hey, let's just get this over with. We'll kill them and then handle the Feral." Valentine quickly drew a scalpel and with her amazing speed made a quick dash for Cerebella.

Cerebella seemed fully aware of everything that was going on around her and cracked a confident grin, she clenched her fists and turned to her attackers, Vice Versa buried its fingers into the floor and began to lift the ground before them. Valentine saw this and was amazed at the sight, she tried to stop herself but the traction caused her to slide across the ground. Vice Versa's brute strength tears a giant hole in the church's floor, sending it high up into the air.

"What?! Such amazing strength…!" Valentine gasped in awe.

Cerebella positions herself and lines herself up for the next step in her attack. The large chunk of floor descends back to their level, this was the opportunity Cerebella was waiting for, she has Vice Versa wind back its massive fist and once it was cocked back enough she has her living weapon give it the strongest punch it could deliver, jettisoning it toward the unsuspecting Valentine.

The impact from Vice Versa's punch was unbelievable, the piece of earth it picked up seems to have transformed the rock into a shimmering diamond that's better left unexplained because I don't know how that works. The large jewel was propelled toward Valentine at a blinding rate, striking her with devastating force. The large gem didn't stop there, it was sent flying toward Double who was struck with Valentine's body, the two were thrown back into the church's alter and large concrete statue of an unnamed goddess. The impact sent a detonating 'boom' throughout the area, shattering the church's stained glass windows in the process.

The Player felt the ground shake and was curled up in a defensive ball as light debris fell from the ceiling. Once things settled down he poked his head out from cover to check the battlefield. The only one standing was Cerebella, it appears that she had won the fight much to his surprise.

"Whoa, you won? I mean…you won! Kickass." He jogged over to Cerebella and gave her a shoulder a slap, "WE did it. I was pretty amazing with that little cowardly display I put on, right? Thanks to me they let their guard down and you were able to get your time in the spotlight too. By the way why is there a big ass hole in the ground? Did you do that? I was only in cover for like a minute."

"Yeah. It was me but I don't know what happened. I just had this sudden burst of power. It felt great. I've never felt so strong in my life."

"Maybe it was the adrenaline. You seem like an adrenaline junkie."

"I do dangerous stuff like this almost every day. This was no ordinary rush. It happened right after you tagged my hand." She looked down to her right palm and then over to the Player, "Did you do something to me?"

"No. All I did was touch your hand and run. Maybe you're thinking too much. You're stronger than you look."

Cerebella knew exactly what she felt. There was something occurred in that very instant he made contact with her. Before she could argue Double arose from the destruction Cerebella created, she was holding an injured Valentine who was unconscious from the attack.

"What the hell?! She's still able to move?" The Player quickly jumped behind Cerebella, using her as a shield.

Double stood in a state of calm, she had dirt, light bruises and her habit damaged with a few cuts here and there. "You possess far greater talent than I anticipated, Player."

"Me?"

"The power to bring out the true potential of those worthy of achieving the Skull Heart's power."

"Cerebella, I have no idea what the hell she's talking about. Cerebella? You listening to me?"

Cerebella's mind was clearly focused on other things as she looked around for Nadia, who was now missing. "…Damnit, that thief snuck off while we were fighting!"

The Player's forehead was met with a gentle slap of his own palm, "That's all you're worried about?"

"Your quarry has entered the catacombs." Double intervened to answer Cerebella's question, "To complete her vengeance against the Medici's, she will confront the Skullgirl and claim the Skull Heart for herself. The Skull Heart can give you anything you desire…even the love of another."

Double's explanation seemed a bit provoking for the Player. He couldn't help but notice that Double was talking as if she was trying to seduce Cerebella into considering the Skull Heart's power. The ability to grant any wish is certainly a desire most people would take if the choice was offered to them, the Player's entire reason for being in the Canopy Kingdom relates to this, the power to make a single wish come true…a blessing but at what cost? Based on the passage he read before arriving the user will transform into a powerful monster of corruption if their heart is impure but what exactly is impurity? You get what you want but you lose what you had.

It had just occurred to the Player that this 'love of another' Double spoke of goes directly to her feelings for Vitale, which was evident by the Player the moment he got to know her a bit more through their time together. The Player took a look over Cerebella's shoulder and noticed her look of curiosity and wonder.

"The love of another…? Can it really-?"

Seeing the young and naïve Cerebella consider the bait Double slowly formed a welcoming smile, "Yes and so much more."

"Don't listen to her, Cerebella." The Player got from behind her and stood by her side with his hand placed firmly on her shoulder to get her attention, she turned to the Player only to find him looking on toward Double, "It sounds nice, doesn't it? The ability to grant any wish but let's not get sidetracked here. We've got a job to do. Forget the Skull Heart. We need the Life Gem. Besides, we can try and make our own happy endings. We don't need some Skull Heart to grant that for us. Where's the fun in living if we have to be given what we want?" He faced Cerebella with a smile, "Working for it on our own is a bit better. Let's just live and let whatever happens happen."

Double's smile quickly reverted to a scowl. Cerebella wasn't expecting such words from the Player but they hit her right where it counted. She smiled back at him and nodded in agreement. "You know what? For once, you're right. Vitale's counting on me to get that gem."

"We." He corrected in a dull tone.

"Right, right, of course…" She smirked bashfully.

On the wall to the right a secret passage way leading to the lower catacombs caught the attention of the Medici muscle duo. The Player recognized the passage and knew what was waiting for them down below.

"That's the way leading to the catacombs right? We don't have any time to lose." Naturally Cerebella was the first to charge headlong toward the entrance, leading the charge to the Skull Heart, "Let's go!"

The Player reached his hand out to her but he knew there was no stopping her, he had to back her up. He swallowed whatever fear he had left and with it took the first step. The floor underneath him suddenly flashed white, he was blinded by the newborn light and covered his eyes for protection. Everything was devoured by the light.

A few seconds later the Player slowly began to open his eyes only to find himself standing alone in a pure white limbo.

"Where am I? …Wait, what happened to Cerebella? How do I get back?"

"Don't worry." A familiar voice spoke to him from behind, he quickly turned to the voice and before him was the Skullgirl, Marie, "You're safe."

"You again?"

"I've been watching you since our last encounter. You never cease to surprise me."

"Everything? Even when I was getting my ass kicked by ninja nurse boobs?"

"Ninja nurse? Do you mean Valentine? Yes. I've seen it all."

"Damnit. Well, whatever, I need to get back to the church because my friend is on her way down to your creepy domain to find some thief. I need to be there and help her."

"Your friend. Cerebella, isn't it? She is pure, at least compared to the company that keeps her."

"The circus, the Medici's or me?"

"The Medici's."

"Ah. Yeah. They're pretty messed up. How do you think I got involved in all of this?"

"I know. It's unfortunate you got involved with their crimes. I cannot allow them to claim the Skull Heart. To eradicate them I must destroy everyone associated to them."

The Player took a precautionary step backward.

"Not you. You were forced to do their dirty work."

"Ok, cool. But…that means you plan on taking out Cerebella. She's been a part of their organization since she was just a little girl." Marie was already well aware of this and didn't reply. The Player waited to see if she would speak on the matter but silence continued to hold between them, Marie's mind was set on her goal of complete eradication of the Medici's. "You can't do that. She's my friend."

"An unfortunate bond has formed between you, I know, but you shouldn't worry, there are more qualified individuals who can take her place. You shouldn't associate yourself with someone who will willing take the life of the innocent."

"But Cerebella isn't after the Skull Heart, nor is she anything like the Medici's. She'll do their dirty work when it comes to fighting, but that's to be expected. She's a fighter and bit of a tomboy, but she would never take anyone's life."

"Are you certain of this?"

"She told me herself: 'I bruise but I don't take lives.' and she's proven that. If you've been watching me then you know what I'm talking about."

"Her obsession will lead to a path of darkness. Her desperate search for acceptance will corrupt her heart. Her blind loyalty will be her demise. Her journey is leading to this pivotal change, the Cerebella you know will be gone forever."

"…Sounds like you caught on too. Was it really that obvious? Heh. She needs to do a better job at concealing her feelings. Eh, I digress. Whatever she does she's doing it for the love of that Vitale guy. I kinda put two and two together the moment I realized how attached she was to him, willing to do whatever he said at a moment's notice, but I believe there's only so much she'll do before finally realizing when enough is enough. She won't let him change her into something she's not. You can't kill my friend."

Marie closed her eyes and sighed, "Do you believe in destiny?"

"Destiny? Eh. I played it before and it's 'ok, I guess. I'm more of a Halo guy."

"What? No…you fool, I- ugh, somethings are better shown than explained."

The distance between the Player and Marie began to extend despite neither of them moving. The farther the two got from one another the more they began to fade away. "Wait!" The Player called out to Marie, "What's going on?"

"Go and see what lies ahead for your friend. As per your request I won't kill her. The life she will be forced to live will be much worse than death."

Her vague explanation only raised more confusion for the Player. He had questions but it was too late, the light that once surrounded him became an endless void of darkness. Out of the darkness a very faint voice could be heard "Pla…!"

"…"

"Playe….!" The voice became more audible the second time around.

"Hm?"

"Player! Wake up!" The Player's vision slowly began to return to him. Though blurry at first his sight continuously improved the more he came back to his senses. Cerebella was crouched down on one knee holding him up in her arms, she began to smile once she noticed his eyes were open though half-lidded. "You're ok!" She exclaimed with a smile showing her joy in knowing her companion was still alive.

"I…can see…the light."

"What?"

"It's…beautiful. The light…" His hand slowly raised from the cold ground, shaking weakly as if he barely had any strength left.

"N-No. Don't go toward the light! It's bad!"

"I can't help it…it's so beautiful."

His hand continued to raise up, it appeared as if he was trying to reach out toward this 'light' he described. When one mentions the light at the end of the tunnel it usually marks the call of death. Cerebella's smile faded as she witnessed her friend descending into death's cold embrace. "Player!" She called out his name once more in a desperate attempt to keep him from going…

_Grope…grope…_

"What the-?" Cerebella felt a strange grip coming from her chest. She looked down and noticed the Player's right hand was groping her left breast.

_Squish…squish…_

The Player continued playing dead whilst his fingers sank into the softness of her warm bosom. It was clear he was faking his critical state. Cerebella let it sink in for a moment but the realization made her stare at him with an unimpressed gaze. She removed her arms from around his head and had him drop to the ground, she stood up and brushed her knees off.

"Ow! …Ha. Worth it." He picked himself up and sat on the ground, rubbing the back of his head with a smile of accomplishment plastered all over his face before he came to realize he wasn't on the upper level of the church as he was when he was mysteriously transported to see Marie. "Uuh, what happened?"

"What happened? You don't remember? When we came down here you just collapsed and then I had to fight off these bone soldiers."

"What happened to Marie?"

"Who?"

"Marie. She's the-…I was-…eh, it's nothing. I was probably just dreaming."

_'Will you be able to live with yourself knowing what he's going to make you do?'_

Cerebella perked up as a inaudible voice questioned her. A bright blue light flashed before the duo, helping illuminate the once dim lit catacombs, this light was coming from none other than the ancient artifact itself, the Skull Heart, which seemingly materialized out of nowhere and without the Skullgirl. Cerebella and the Player were struck in awe as the all-powerful skull levitated before them. Cerebella carefully approached the Skull Heart, it seemed safe and nothing was going wrong. Vice Versa reached out its massive hand and placed it underneath the floating skull as if it was holding it within its grasp.

"So this is it: the Skull Heart, the source of the Skullgirls power. But…where is the Skullgirl?"

The Player quickly jumped up and scurried over to Cerebella, "H-Hey! You're not about to make a wish are you?"

"No. Forget the wish…why are you being so twitchy?"

The Player finally had the heart in his grasp. It was right there…the reason he's endured horrifying sights, agreed to helping the mafia and getting his ass kicked by a nurse was floating before him. He could feel the seduction of his greed coursing through his veins. "Twitchy? Twitch? I'm not twitchy! How about…I uh, hold that Skull Heart for you while you, y'know…"

He was beginning to freak her out but she paid him no mind. There was a bigger task at hand for Cerebella, "You can sit here and be weird. I need to find that thief and bring her back to Vitale."

"Then do THAT and give me the HEART!"

Out of the darkness of the catacombs Nadia leaped into action, making a reach for the Skull Heart while Cerebella was temporarily distracted. "Thanks for dealing with Marie for me, circus-girl!"

The Player and Cerebella were shocked at Nadia's sudden appearance. She stretched her extendable arms out for the heart, it was just within her reach but Cerebella's quick thinking managed to intervene, Vice Versa managed to grab a hold of Nadia's entire body with one hand. The feral struggled to break free but continued restlessly to find her freedom. Vice Versa wanted to ensure a deadlock grip, it brought the second hand in and wrapped Nadia in a tight ball lock hold. Cerebella knew she was caught and exhaled in relief at the close call she managed to prevent.

"Ha! Player, I got her!"

He was too occupied holding the heart in his hands, his legs were trembling in joy. He practically wasn't there.

"…Let me go!" Nadia yelled out from the small opening in Vice Versa's palms she managed to pry open, "I've got to avenge my friends…no, my family! With one wish I can end the Medici mafia!"

"I can't let you make that wish." The darker female rejected Nadia's claim, "That's MY family you're talking about now!"

The fierce determination on Nadia's face became apparent. She summoned her inner strength, the passion and memory for her deceased loved ones, and continued to forcefully attempt to break free from Vice Versa's violent hold, "With or without my wish, I'll destroy them! As long as the Life Gem flows through my veins, no one can stop me from avenging the Fishbone Gang!"

Cerebella and Nadia were on two opposite sides. Clearly they were never going to see eye-to-eye, it was bound to be an endless cycle of cat and mouse. Cerebella saw the sadness in Nadia's burning eyes but at that moment compassion wasn't on her mind. She then thought back to Vitale's words 'By any means necessary'. There wasn't much time to think, the clock was ticking and Nadia was adamant on seeing her goals come to fruition. Cerebella grit her teeth and shut her eyes at the only choice she had. She could feel her heart ache at the very thought of what she was going to force herself to do in order to see her mission through.

"…Flow's through your veins, huh?"

She opened her eyes and revealed a lifeless glare in her once bright eyes. Vice Versa applied even more pressure to its grip, apparently not being held back by the constraints of morals, reflecting the personal feelings of its wielder. Nadia was powerless to stop the awesome power of a living weapon. She let out a loud scream that echoed throughout the catacombs. The scream was loud enough to catch the attention of the Player, who snapped out of his trance from the Skull Heart. His sight was now set on the Cerebella crushing a helpless Nadia.

"…Whoa, Cerebella? Cerebella!" He looked back to the Skull Heart and then back over to Cerebella. His legs didn't want to move away but his heart was telling him to get over and save his friend. "…Damnit." He muttered under his breath, releasing the Skull Heart and rushing over to the violent scene. "What are you doing?!" He asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder, "You're crushing her!"

"Stay back. I'm going to end this…and we can go back home and be done with this!"

"But…what about-?"

"It has to be done. She won't comply and return the Life Gem. Vitale's orders were by any means necessary. Reason didn't work so now we do things the hard way!"

"Nnngg- GAAAAAHHHHH!" Nadia's screams made the Player realize the seriousness of the situation. He looked on helplessly as Nadia was crushed even more.

"No. No, this isn't you. You're not going to kill her, Cerebella. There's a better way to do this. You can't honestly believe taking her life is the right thing to do. You never believed in the life the Medic's lived and you know that. You told me yourself 'I bruise but I don't kill', or did you forget that? What exactly is it that Nadia has done wrong? Her friends were killed and thrown away, she survived only to witness the horror of loss. As if you wouldn't do the same thing. You know what they did to her was horrible but you act as if it doesn't bother you because they're your 'family'. I get you love them but that doesn't make it right, does it?"

Cerebella's heart couldn't lie, everything the Player said was on point. She never wanted to take the life of anyone, she was only willing to go so far as long as it meant keeping Vitale happy but what good would that bring if she had to be miserable for the rest of her life? Carrying the blood of the innocent on her hands. Cerebella's silence spoke for itself. Nadia, who had stopped fighting back against Vice Versa's grip, watched quietly, she was speechless with the Player calming Cerebella down but even more so from the fact that he was siding with her despite working for the Medici's.

"See? You know I'm right. I know you don't want to hear it but, please, let her go."

"Let her go? Are you crazy? We finally got her in our grasp!"

"I know. I know. But she's suffered enough. Cerebella, I promise you, things will work out in the end. Vitale might not be happy but we can cover it up. Don't let him change you into something you're not. I'd rather fail and risk the mafia coming after me than having you lose your soul and be something you're not for the rest of your life. Just please, let her go."

There was a whirlwind of emotions brewing in Cerebella's heart. She refused to allow the only opportunity she had slip out of her hands, especially after getting so close, however there was also no way she could find it in herself to end Nadia's life. The story Nadia shared with them back in Little Innsmouth shed a bit of light on the true horror behind the Medici's way of handling business. The Player stood on the edge of his seat, praying she would make the right choice.

Cerebella closed her eyes and reopened them to Nadia, letting out a scream of frustration. Vice Versa eventually opened its hands, thus having Nadia fall and drop to the ground. Cerebella balled up her fist and threw an angry punch toward a nearby pillar, her anger numbed the pain as blood ran down her fist. She damaged her knuckles from the force alone.

"Screw it!" She yelled out. Nadia and the Player stood in silence as she vented out her anger. She turned to the thief and pointed, "Get the hell out of here. Next time I see you messing with the Medici's and causing us trouble, I assure you…we will end it once and for all."

Nadia's eye peered over to the Player who noticed her quiet gaze, he faced her and slowly nodded, prompting her to take the leave. She knew the Player was taking a great risk by letting her go and lying about the events, convincing the leg breaker alone was a truly impressive act. If it were anybody else chances are Nadia would've been dead already. The feral stood up and made her way toward the stairs leading to the catacomb's exit, her eyes met with the Player's once more as she passed him, a look of sincere gratitude on her face, smiling before departing from him. With Nadia gone all that was left for the Player and Cerebella was to return to the Medici tower and report in.

The duo left the catacomb's and the Grand Cathedral shortly after. It was a quiet walk back down the road. The Player knew Cerebella was still mad about everything that happened but he was proud that he was able to prevent her from making a choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

He slowly built up the heart to break silence between them, even getting confident enough to walk closer to her. "…I know you pretty much hate me now, Cerebella, and I shouldn't really be talking to you because you need time to calm down but I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you. You did the right thing. Be proud of yourself."

"Yeah. Fantastic, a successful goddamn job. We sure did great. We let the thief get away and we're coming back empty handed. We sure have a lot to be happy for. You've made this mission a complete bust and wasted my time."

It was clear, and obviously expected, she was still sore about everything. Her tone alone was proof of this. He didn't want to make the situation worse but now that they were finally talking he knew there was more that had to be said, "Heh…you don't need to be so cold about it."

"Well, I'm sorry if you're getting your feelings hurt but I honestly don't care how you feel." Her piercing eyes intimidated him to a degree but he faced her anger head on, as a way of taking the responsibility for failing the mission. "It was such a hard decision and I can't believe you talked me out of doing what I needed to do. It was right there…right in MY hands!"

"Do you know why you spared her?"

"I don't know! …I don't know. I would give anything to keep Vitale happy, retrieving the Life Gem would've made him ecstatic. I've lived my entire life going unnoticed. I did everything for him. To have him see me for more than what I could do for him. There were times I wanted to give up but I'm too stubborn to just give up."

"You're in love with Vitale, right?" She didn't answer but it was made obvious from the start and throughout their travels there was more to Cerebella's views on him than just being a father figure. "I don't mean to lecture you but…you're a young woman. You've got nothing but time ahead of you. You don't need to bother with such a heavy burden. Trying to force someone to love you isn't the best way to live. Think about it, even if you did take Nadia's life would that make him stop you from doing it again? Do you think it'd make him appreciate you more or just make him see that you're always willing to do as he says without having to think about it? Don't let him use your love as a means to manipulate you. I get that you see the Medici's as your family but you can't use that to justify the bad things you do."

"I'm not trying to justify anything! I just…I just…" She stopped walking forward and held her head down.

"Cerebella?" He stopped as well once he noticed her.

The moment he called her name he was greeted with a hug. He wasn't expecting this and didn't know how to react to Cerebella's warm hold. In her mind the images of herself nearly killing Nadia played over and over again, the young performer was disgusted by her own actions and was horrified that she almost managed to lose herself to selfish desire. The more she thought about it the tighter her hold on the Player became. "Thank you." She muttered softly. He was hit by another unforeseen act of gratitude from her but as he let it sink in he understood the meaning behind her embrace, this act of gratitude was proof that she was thankful to him. He smiled down to her and wrapped his arms around her, returning the hug.

"You're welcome." He replied with a supportive pat to her back.

Cerebella couldn't help but smile into his chest, this was a bit unlike her to show such emotion but their time together has provided the young fighter with a life changing experience that helped her grow as an individual, Cerebella has wholeheartedly accepted the Player as a true friend and ally.

Later that night the two return back in the neon lit city of New Meridian, arriving at Medici Tower, the base of operation for the titular Medici family, to report in to a waiting Vitale who was waiting for them in the tower's apex, this being the location of Lorenzo Medici's office. Vitale stood by the large window looking out to the beautiful neon city as the Player and Cerebella stood side by side at the front of the desk.

"So, you weren't able to get the Life Gem back."

"…No sir." Cerebella hesitantly answered Vitale. She was feeling the pressure of failure knowing he wasn't pleased with their results. "The Life Gem's power proved to be greater than what I could've prepared for. I'm very sorry, Vitale." She bowed herself apologetically.

The mobster held a glass of scotch in his hand, swirling it around before taking a drink. "Don't blame yourself, child. It's my fault." His words caused Cerebella to look up from her bow, "It was my fault for trusting this mission with you. I knew I should've went with one of the higher ups in the organization. Dahlia would've gotten the job done." Cerebella felt her heart sink but she simply closed her eyes and continued to hang her head in shame. "Now we're going to have to send better forces to hunt the thief down. You've always been weak, Cerebella."

"Y-Yes, sir. I deeply apologize for my performance."

The Player couldn't take seeing Cerebella in such emotional pain, the reason they failed was his fault after all. He took a step ahead of Cerebella and placed his hand on the desk, "There's no need to blame her. It was my fault."

"You?"

"Yeah. It turns out the thief lead us right to the Skullgirl's domain. We met the Skullgirl and had to fight her off, it was a challenge and we were lucky to make it out with our lives. Cerebella wanted to keep fighting but I convinced her it was best to make a tactical retreat. If you think we were going to take the Skullgirl on, with just the two of us, you've lost your mind. It ain't happenin' captain."

Vitale stood in silence as he listened to the Player's explanation. It wasn't too farfetched as the Medici's has had bad blood with the recent Skullgirl, Marie.

"The Skullgirl, huh? I see…even with your power there was nothing you could do, Player?"

"Bruh, I still have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I have no power."

"Hm. Maybe you're not the one."

"Aren't you a little too old to believe in this 'chosen one' nonsense? You just pulled your car up on the side of the road and made me come along. What if I was a cop?" Kind of a stupid thing to say in the heart of a mafia base, "…Not that I am a cop or anything."

Vitale chuckled and finished his scotch. He faced the two and walked over to the desk where he took a seat in the chair. "I guess I have to take some share of the blame then. If I had known the feral had connections with the Skullgirl I would've sent in more muscle."

"Great. Can I go now?"

Vitale reached over to one of the drawer's behind the desk. He pulled out a roll of money and tossed it over to the Player who just barely managed to catch it. He didn't know what it was at first but once he got it in his hand and had a chance to better inspect it he saw it was a nice knot of cash. He didn't know what to think and looked back at Vitale, "That's to make sure you keep your mouth shut. If you get pinched this meeting never happened. Got it?"

"What meeting?"

"Smart kid. Now get out of here."

The Player turned his attention over to Cerebella who smiled back at him. He smirks at her and then faced Vitale one last time, nodding at him. With the mission officially over the Player was guided out of the room by a few the generic mafia bodyguard goons. Believing the lie the Player told him Vitale was under the impression that the Life Gem was now in the hands of the Skullgirl. The mafia and Marie were in a brutal feud, with Vitale now believing they were losing the upper hand and since the Life Gem was gone desperate actions would soon need to be taken.

The Player was escorted out of the Medici Tower and he was now on his way back to Filia and Samson who were most likely still asleep back at the hotel. He took a detour off the main bustling road and made his way down a narrow street where nobody was around. He took the money out of his pocket and stared gleefully at his pay.

"Oooooooh man! Look at how thick this money roll is! I'll be able to get Filia and me a better place to stay! Some actual good food, some new clothes and so much other stuff! Man, I don't know what I did to deserve this luck but I'm not gonna complain. Not one bit! …Oh wait, wait. Damn, I actually completely forgot about the Skull Heart. It was right in my hands. Shit, all that buddy-buddy 'don't lose your soul' stuff completely shifted my mind from the wish but now that I think about it the catacombs in that church was where I met Marie, who is the Skullgirl, and it's also the place where I managed to actually SEE the heart with my own eyes. I get the feeling the Grand Cathedral is gonna be the spot where a lot of important stuff goes down. I'll worry about that later though, because I'm paid and for right now…things are completely looking up for me!"

What the Player didn't know was that he was actually being watched. At the corner of the street a SWAT like van pulled up and blocked his path. A squadron of armed men got out of the vehicle and held their weapons up at the Player, who quickly held his hands in the air. Sniper units were positioned on the rooftops and a helicopter had its searchlight pinned on him, the way he came in was also blocked with another van containing armed officers. The Player's body was covered in red dots from the laser sights equipped on the guns.

"DON'T MOVE! YOU'RE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED!"

"DON'T RESIST!"

"WE'VE GOT YOU! IT'S OVER!"

"THIS IS THE BLACK EGRETS OF THE CANOPY KINGDOM! GIVE US A REASON, PUNK!"

The Player remained completely still. There was nothing but silence between them and no explaination on what the heck was going on. The Player opened his mouth to talk but before he could get a word out:

"HIS MOUTH MOVED! HE'S RESISTING ARREST!"

"QUICK! WE MUST OVERREACT IMMEDIATELY!"

The officers with riot shields, from each side of the street corners, charged toward the Player. "Wait, what?!" He yelled out seeing them take action despite him not doing anything. The officers ganged up on him, delivering a few physical assaults before finally throwing a brown bag over his head.

* * *

**Ok, so I finally got this chapter out. I didn't think it would take this long but I've had a lot of things to tend to added hardware issues and all that noise. I'm feeling pretty accomplished, I didn't expect to get so many reviews for this I get surprised every time I see I got an email telling me I've got a review from people wanting more and it puts a smile on my face and makes me want to get back to writing as soon as possible. Seems a few readers were excited for Cerebella's chapter and I hope I didn't disappoint especially with such a long and unintended wait. While I planned on having the stories I write be on the comical side of things I like adding some serious moments in there as well, with emphasis on bonds between people. I think I made that even more evident with Cerebella's chapter. I remember reading that Alex Ahad had it so that Cerebella was in need of others, her life and upbringing with the Medici's caused her to lose out on a lot of things thus she doesn't know how to handle a lot of common social elements, such as making friends. I can see that, in the game her character is simply "Vitale needs me to do this? I'm on it." but as we saw in her original ending, SPOILER WARNING, she regrets having killed to get the Life Gem back for Vitale. Alex also said that the main characters of Skullgirls, the heroes such as Filia, Parasoul, Squigly and so on, would be the key to having Cerebella break out of her Medici shell. I would love to see that happen, Cerebella is one of my favorites in the game and I would love to see her character further develop. **

**Moving on I also want to bring up another reason for the delay. I've had a lot of revisions and so on. It had just occurred to me a few days prior that I should keep the scenes rather than delete them so I can show what it is I had originally but I've only managed to save two of the scenes I've changed from many in Cerebella's chapter. If I ever do some revisions or cuts I'll be sure to add them in these little Author Note sections I tend to do at the end of every chapter so you can read them for yourself.**

**This little scene was between the Player and Cerebella after he brings her a drink as they're resting up at the hotel, after he asked if she was feeling ok:**

_"…Hm?" She perked up the moment she heard him speak, "I'm sorry. Did you say something?"_

_"Oh, no, not really. It's just been a pretty relaxing night, y'know?"_

_"Yeah. I guess it has."_

_"It's a first for me. Ever since I got here my life has just descended into madness. Craziness everywhere. Even in my dreams." Cerebella gave a gentle giggle as he further explained himself, it was still pretty clear she had something on her mind. "Hey, if you're still worried about the Life Gem then don't be. We'll get it back."_

_"It looks like I'm worried? Heh…that doesn't sound like me. Sorry about that and no need to worry. I'm not bothered about the Life Gem. I know we'll get it back. It's just…I don't know. It's-"_

_"Vitale?" He asked._

_Cerebella didn't reply initially. All she could do was nod her head slowly, directing her attention back to the can she held in her hands. "…Yeah."_

_"I see. You seem pretty bent up on the guy. You've got a little schoolgirl crush or something?"_

_Cerebella quickly directed her gaze to the Player and lightly snarled. "I don't have a crush!" She protested in obvious embarrassment._

_"Uh huh. I can tell but keep it down, you'll wake Filia and Samson." She then remembered Filia was sleeping beside her, she turned and looked to see if she was disturbed by her sudden outburst, Filia was still sleeping peacefully. Cerebella huffed and opened her soda, proceeding to drink it to take her mind off of the Player's question, "Ok, ok…so it's not a crush. I'm gonna put my money on something deeper. Like love."_

_Her eyes widened and she nearly spat out her drink but gulped it down before she could make a mess. She raised her hand and opened her mouth as if she was ready to shout but she quickly regain her composure due to her sleeping friend but the Player wasn't wrong and at this point she realized her feelings were obvious, there was no point in trying to lie. She squeezed the can within her hand and exhaled, "…I just want to make him happy."_

_The Player gave a light smile, happy to see that she came to face her feelings but the smile faded merely seconds later, "And there's nothing wrong with that. It's best not to lie to yourself about these things but don't you think you're a bit young to try and impress somebody like him? Not like 'You're a minor, he's an adult' type of young. 'Young' as in there's still so much you don't know about yourself, you don't know that you're in love with this guy. You probably think it but you don't know. Hell, 'love' itself is a pretty strong word, Bella."_

_"I don't need a lecture, ok? I didn't expect you to understand my position but I've felt this way for a long time. After coming this far, after all that I've done for him…I know this isn't small or a phase. It's because of him I am who I am now."_

_"Pfft! You think so, huh?"_

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

_"He may have adopted you but he didn't raise you into the young woman you are now."_

_Cerebella looked away, showing disinterest in , "You don't know anything about me."_

_"Maybe not on a personal level but I know enough from what I've seen. You cared about what happened to Nadia when was crushed underneath that debris, remember? You were ready to save her in a heartbeat. A clear enemy of the Medici's, the organization you're blindly loyal to, yet you were still concerned. Enough to want to help her. If that was Vitale do you think he'd show the same compassion? He threatened to shoot me if I didn't follow his orders. Which is why we're a team now. He's ruthless, a goon, and based on how things are between you two…he's manipulative too."_

_Cerebella was already being pushed to the edge. She once warned the Player about badmouthing the Medici's, especially Vitale, prior and now she was finally done with his analysis, she stood up from the couch and made her way over to the Player, gripping him by his collar, snarling fiercely at him, "Shut your damn mouth! You don't know him or me. Stop talking like you know everything!"_

_The Player didn't fight back against Cerebella's frustration. He remained gripped up, looking back into Cerebella's eyes, "I know you're better than this. This, right now, is what he's turning you into. That force they can use when somebody even uses their name the wrong way. How far will you go for somebody who isn't right for you? For somebody who you're already better than. You say you're not a killer but how long until he turns you into one? Using your feelings as bait to get you to do everything without a second thought. Why? All because he knows you'll do it."_

_The weakness in Cerebella's eyes surfaced despite her exterior showing anger. Her grip on his shirt tightened the more he went on. An internal conflict was born within, taking her on a wild ride of emotion and confusion._

_"Don't let him turn you into something you're not." The Player spoke calm and softly, "What's the point in giving somebody your heart if you have to lose your soul in the process?"_

**The two had a lot more heart-to-heart in the original chapter but I felt I was straying too far away from what I was originally setting out to do, I didn't want to overdo their time together. Maybe it was me feeling I had to get the chapter out as soon as possible and having them have these little moments together would drag out the story? Lol, that sounds about right to be honest.**

**Moving onto the last one I had. This one was nearing the end when Cerebella had Nadia in Vice Versa's grip just like in her story in game. This was after the Player tried to talk Cerebella out of finishing Nadia:**

_Cerebella's eyes shifted from cold and merciless to confusion and uncertainty, the grip on Vice Versa shifted from tight to loose. "S-Shut up…"_

_"Look at yourself, Cerebella! Is this really all you want to be? A puppet doing their dirty work? Don't let him change you into something you're not! What good is giving someone your heart if you have to lose your soul in the process? Even if he did end up falling for you it won't be YOU anymore, Cerebella! He's using you. He won't ever love you back!"_

_Cerebella's eyes widened and she quickly turned to him, one of Vice Versa's hands released its grip from Nadia and swung toward the Player, swatting him back and sending him flying into the wall which was shattered upon impact. Nadia was shocked by this turn of events. Cerebella's eyes were full of tears, being struck with a reality that she feared has damaged her like no attack has ever done. She lived her life in a desperate attempt to please Vitale for his affection. Growing up she continuously realized more and more that he would never return the one thing she wanted from him. Deep down she was helpless little girl looking for answers, she stayed hopeful that one day her attempts would reach Vitale but to this day it never came and she knew It would never come._

_"I said…shut…up…"_

_The Player was laid out on the ground, motionless._

_"I'm going…to do this and nobody is going to stop me."_

_He remained on the ground. Nadia was speechless at the events that transpired. Cerebella turned her back to the Player and had Vice Versa wrap its other hand back around Nadia, though the grip lacked power and shook nervously._

_"…Give her back."_

_Cerebella's eyes widened as she heard the sound of an approaching voice._

_"Give her back…" The Player limped back over to the two girls, now seeing the full extent of what Marie meant. Cerebella refused to turn around and face him after she was mentally aware that she had struck him prior despite feeling as if she hadn't done so on her own will, "My friend…" he collapsed to his knees, to weak and injured to walk any farther, with nothing left he reached his shaking hand out to her, "-Cerebella, give her back."_

**This was a lot more dramatic. I wanted to show the seriousness of the situation between them and Cerebella's emotional struggle and how far torn she was with deciding. I wanted her to see how much control Vitale has over her, to the point of turning on a friend she's grown attached to and harming them. The plea "Give her back...", I feel, was the most important part of the scene, it helps you see how dire the situation was from her perspective. Again, like most every other scene I scrapped I felt it was straying too far away from the mildly light hearted story, getting too serious is kind of a no-no for me. **

**I'm hoping the next few chapter's will have more comedy in them, Cerebella was kind of a complex character for me, I wanted her to actually grow so that's probably why her chapter was more driven toward story and character developing than shit's and giggles lol. Besides I don't think anybody really wants Nadia dead anyway, I think Cerebella actually got quite a bit of hate for her ending, some evening praising the events that transpired in Eliza's story...which I will not spoil. Until I get to Eliza's chapter on here lol.  
**

**I guess I'm happy with the revisions. I don't think anything dragged out between the Player and Cerebella. I hope I'm not making them seem like lovers, same with Filia, because this is not going to be a harem. I just want their friendship to be defined and strong, if you think about it...it kinda reflects how players feel about their mains when gaming, y'know? XD**

**There I go not making any sense again but that's that! Chapter's finally out and Parasoul is up next, I'm hoping I can get that out much sooner than Cerebella's chapter but I think I'm gonna write a Senran Kagura one shot too since I recently got into the series with Estival Versus and I love it but I digress! Buh-Bye and I hope it was an ok read :D**


	6. Another Update? C'mon

**Alright, I'm back with some news! Now regarding Parasoul's chapter there's been, you guessed it, a delay in the midst of writing, but some good news is that it's halfway-ish done, I already have an idea of how I want to go about things and where I want it to lead to but my problem is having so many idea's come to me mid-writing which then leads me to go back and forth with these conflicting interests. One minute I want to continue on with the main story yet I also want to take some time to just have the character's take it easy and have them relax. Since the beginning the Player has never had any real interactions with Filia outside her chapter, they live together and support one another but so far haven't had the chance to just enjoy each other's company. After they met he's been forced to work for the mafia, fought Valentine/Double, met Marie twice, found the Skull Heart and saved 's life by convincing Cerebella to let her go in the latest chapter's climax, now he's gotten arrested and is on the verge of meeting the Canopy Kingdom's very own Princess(she should be queen now since her mom is dead, right?) Parasoul.**

**You see what I'm getting at? All these major events just coming out the woodwork with no time for the character's to just kick back and enjoy a regular day with one another. The more I write the more I find I want to do this, I've gotten a lot more support with this story than I had originally anticipated and the constant support just makes me want to do the best I can, having these major events frequently occur makes me feel like the story is being pressured to progress, almost as if I'm following the game too closely. I'm still debating whether or not I should continue on with Parasoul's chapter or take the time to make a small, and most likely shorter, series of events to just have the character's bond more and expand on their friendship, the Player has told Filia he would be back home like...what? Twice now? And with this new chapter he got arrested and he's not back home. Again XD**

**Now that I think about it I doubt I can just disrupt Parasoul's story since the end of the Cerebella chapter ends with the Player being arrested by the Black Egrets. Maybe I should do something random like how I did with Fukua? Decisions, decisions...well, I don't want to keep you all waiting like how I did with Cerebella's chapter, just know I'm still working on it but constant idea's jumping into my head makes me take mental detours, not to mention I'm mapping out how I want the story to proceed, I've been studying the story of Skullgirls and tried gluing them together in a canonical sense, as we know there is no canon story in Skullgirls but each story has a bit of important plot points which gives a bit of insight to the overall lore and the bigger picture of the story, with this story I try to follow it as such with the best possible outcomes that would make enough sense for the story to keep on going:**

**Like, Filia being defeated by Double thus never finding the Catacomb's to the Skull Heart to make her wish for Carol to have her old life back or Cerebella realizing that killing is wrong in comparison to her in-game ending where she does it and has to live with knowing she's a killer and lost herself to selfishness, see what I mean? So far I have the story progression mapped out as so [Uuuuuuh, possible spoilers? If you don't want to see who comes next or what the future of the line-up will be then I'd say skip over it lol]: Filia, Cerebella, Parasoul, Beowulf, Big Band, Peacock, Painwheel, Valentine, Double, Squigly and Eliza, I'm still looking into the story so there are bound to be some changes in there with the order so nothing is definite just yet, also Robo-Fortune isn't in there because...she ain't canon lol, she may be the next Fukua chapter where its just a random event and won't have any real impact on the story at large.**

**I don't want to ramble on. I just want to keep you guys updated. I'll give you a chapter sneak peak like before, with Overwatch releasing today the delay might be even longer. SORRY!**

* * *

_CKN - Canopy Kingdom News! _

_'Good evening everyone, and thanks for tuning in to the 5 o'clock Canopy Kingdom News. In our top story today, there have been numerous reports of Skullgirl sightings in New Meridian, leaving the Canopy Military to raise the Skullgirl Alert Level to Mauve. New Meridian citizens are advised to stay indoors, remain vigilant and report anything suspicious. This newest incarnation of the Skullgirl has yet to be identified, but our sources within the NMPD say her victims seem to be connected with the prestigious Medici family. Lorenzo Medici, the most prominent of this powerful clan, has withdrawn from the public spotlight and is believed to have gone into hiding. _

_Having just observed the seventh anniversary of the defeat of the previous Skullgirl, our kingdom's own Queen Nancy, Trinity bless her soul, the appearance of a new Skullgirl is a chilling development. While expected, the core of our nation is once again-'_

"BOR-IIIIIING!" A loud voice interrupted the rather important news report. The view pans out from a view of the reporter and shows one of the Egret guards taking his eye off of his small portable TV and looking back from his desk to a nearby cell which held the Player behind bars, he was watching the report along with the guard but obviously has shown disinterest in what was being explained, "What else is on?" he casually asked with a dull expression.

"Quiet, prisoner!" The guard replied.

"You're holding me in jail for nothing. The least you could do is provide some good TV. The news is boring. Put on some cartoons."

One of the armed guards near the Player couldn't help but overhear the conversation, he peaked back to the cell, "Cartoons? What are you? Five?" he asked looking over his shoulder.

The Player now had his attention on the guard who questioned him, "Good animated shows have no limit when it comes to age. They're better than most crap on nowadays anyway. Better than the news. At least it doesn't put me to sleep."

"The news is very important. Especially when regarding the Skullgirl. With her roaming the streets it's best you pay attention to all important news flashes."

"Don't bother acknowledging him." The first guard sitting by the desk intervened, turning his attention back to the TV, "He's a prisoner and we're ordered to stand guard."

The Player turned his attention back over to the first guard, "You mind telling me what I'm even doing in here? I didn't do anything."

"You've been sighted with the Medici's and accepted in working for them. You're an accomplice to one of the most powerful crime syndicates this kingdom has ever known. Don't play dumb."

It had just occurred to the Player that they were aware of him hunting down the Life Gem with Cerebella. Vitale paid the Player to keep his mouth shut from the authorities, with the Egrets well versed on the events it could be assumed, by the Medici's standpoint, the Player ratted them out. "N-No I didn't!"

"We've kept tabs on you since you arrived. You can't lie to us. Princess Umbrella has informed us about you. Your name, 'Player' runs deep in our kingdom's history."

The Player sighed heavily and shook his head, "That's not my name. My name is-!"

"Save it." The guard interrupted, bringing his attention back on the news. He and the other guards returned to their rightful posts and carrying out their jobs now ignoring the Player.

"Why does everyone cut me off when I'm about to reveal my real name?"

_'So once again, thanks to princess Parasoul and the Black Egrets, you can sleep easy at night. Even when this new threat has emerged. In these uncertain times, it's good to know that we can always rely on the strength and leadership of our Canopy's royal family. Good night, and goddesspeed.'_

The Player walked over to his bed and sat down with his back laid up against the concrete wall. He couldn't believe he was actually arrested, but for actual good reason as he did assist the Medici's, even if the mission was a complete bust. The Egrets also confiscated his pay from Vitale so he was now broke with no money, he had nothing to bring home to Filia. Back to square one.

"…I'm bored." A young girl's voice could be heard from somewhere in the prison area. It piqued the Player's curiosity as she sounded familiar, "This is boring. Let's go home already…I want ice cream!" he got up from his bed and made his way over to the bars on his cell, he tried looking down the long hall with what little vision he had but he couldn't see much as they were further down the hallway.

An older woman could be heard sighing shortly after the younger girl spoke. "You were the one who wanted to come! What did you expect?"

"Yeah, well, I changed my mind! I thought I'd get to see you beat up bad guys, using your sonic boobs, pool balls and KFC combos! You know…the good stuff! …Not just stare at smelly prisoners for hours on end."

"It's a prison. Why would I beat up the people we already captured? Ugh. Fine, fine…we'll all put the kingdom's safety on hold for your ice cream, you little brat. Seriously, what am I going to do with you? We'll go after we return to the castle"

"Hooray! I knew all that nagging would pay off!" The Player couldn't see anything no matter how much he tried but luck would have it the two young ladies were making their way farther down the corridor and to his location. The youngest girl happily skipped her way down the cells with newfound joy in getting her way. " I scream for ice cream, I scream for ice cream !" she cheerfully sang while continuing her way down past each cell. As she made her way past one of the guards, who respectfully saluted her and allowed her by, her eye fell upon the Player's cell. She skipped by it at first but walked back to check and see if she identified him as the same person.

He looked at her and she looked at him. Their stares are evidence they had some form of recollection of one another. "…It's you!" They both exclaimed, getting the attention of the prisoners and guards.

"Why the heck did you leave me behind the other day, you jerk?! I had more questions and stuff for you!" The girl was obviously not happy as she remembered what the Player had done.

"You remember me?" He asked curiously.

"Of course I remember you. How could I not? I go to the bathroom for a minute and then you just leave, Mr.'Player' and such."

"To be fair, I didn't owe it to you to wait." He crossed his arms and looked down to the young girl, further inspecting her while trying to dive deep within his memory to remember her name as she did his, "You're uh…Raincoat, right?"

The girl narrowed her eyes complimented by an unimpressed slanted mouth, "Umbrella, you idiot."

"That was my second guess." He claimed…most likely lying.

As they were speaking the guard who was closest was scratching the side of his head, uh…helmet, in confusion by the two's conversation but as he noticed the older woman was walking by he got back on guard and respectfully saluted her, she was too occupied wondering why the younger girl was conversing with a prisoner to even notice the guard.

"Umbrella, what are you doing?" The woman asked as she appeared before his cell. The woman was stunningly beautiful, with a figure that could almost compare to that of the voluptuous Valentine. She had amber eyes and red back length hair with one large bang covering the right eye. She wore a rather tight black turtleneck sweater, though the bottom material was a bit looser, and an impressively small and tight black miniskirt, on her feet she wore low heeled shoes. Her defining physical trait were her amazing legs, her attire honestly didn't leave much to the imagination. She also wore a necklace cross that hung just above her breasts.

Once the Player got eye of her his jaw dropped and he couldn't help but form a smile, pleased with her well figured body. "Damn! That's a tight ass outfit! How are you breathing in that? Better yet…let me not even ask questions because it's showing off all the right features."

The woman slowly turned to him, "What was that?" she asked in a stern voice.

"You're sexy. I want to do things to you." Give him credit for being honest at least.

Umbrella was too young to truly understand what he was talking about and it was probably for the best. She just shrugged what he said off and faced the woman while pointing to him, "Parasoul, don't worry. This guy isn't an issue. I met him on the ship before arriving in the kingdom. Remember I told you about that guy I met?"

Parasoul was her name, she looked to Umbrella as she explained their connection, "H-Him? So you're saying this is-"

"Yep. The Player. Kind of a weird name, right?"

The Player squinted his eyes and looked down toward Umbrella, "Better that than naming me after an inanimate object. Your name is Umbrella yet you're wearing a raincoat. And it's warm as hell outside. What's your parents name? Rubber and Boots?"

"Nobody asked you!" Umbrella stomped her foot in a comedic fit.

* * *

**I kinda wanted to give more but then that'd probably be giving too much lol. Originally I wanted to have Zone-tan to make a cameo appearance in this chapter, sharing a cell with the Player, the two were going to have a small conversation asking what the other was doing locked up and when Zone-tan explains why it would've lead to some fourth wall breaking. To anybody who don't know who Zone-tan is she's the mascot for Zone who is well known for making flash cartoon's, the lewd kind...and (s)he managed to land a job as an animator for Skullgirls after (s)he applied when Lab Zero was looking for talent with the DLC character's, I believe it was before Squigly came out, anyway Zone made a flash animation for Filia before applying, made a few pictures of Squigly as well but compared to the Filia flash it was much more tamed XD**

**Look it up at your own risk, NSFW ahead of those who don't know. Zone actually did an April Fool's prank saying Zone-tan was going to be a playable character when (s)he was signed on to work with Lab Zero, there was pictures of Zone-tan in game, a character description and playstyle inspirations, this was where I got the idea to have her make a small appearance but I thought it wouldn't fit yet at the same time it feels like it'd be right at home, I may add it when the actual chapter comes out so re-reading the beginning might be worth a go once its out, right? Anywayz...I guess that's all I have to say for now, I'm gonna either go to sleep for a few hours or stay up and wait for Overwatch to come in the mail. Whatever the case may be for you just make sure you have yourself a damn good day and I'll be seeing you soon.**


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